Epidemic
by musegirl88
Summary: Leah wants her life to change, but the change that comes is not what she had in mind. She and her friends try to find a place of refuge from the viral pandemic sweeping the nation. New chapter is up!
1. Introduction Part 1

Author's Note: I haven't written anything for a while, the last thing I wrote was a Harry Potter fan fiction. But I felt inspired to write this Dawn of the Dead fanfic after reading a fabulous story called "As The World Dies" by Gothgoddessrhia, it is one of the best zombie fanfics you will ever read. So I must give some credit to her for getting my creative juices flowing for this story! Check out her story as well, it is really cool. Please read and review my work, constructive criticism is appreciated as well. Hope you enjoy it!

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Leah sighed inwardly and put on an expression of concern. This was the fifth customer today that had decided to yell at her. Even though she'd developed a thick skin to the verbal abuse in the few years she'd been working in retail, today was just too much. "Uh huh," she said when the customer paused. Leah shot a glance at her friend Seth, who was talking to a customer about a flat screen TV. He saw her and rolled his eyes. They both unfortunately knew Leah's angry customer very well.

The middle-aged woman put her hands on her hips. "Are you even listening to me?"

Leah looked up at the woman. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Kildare, please continue."

Mrs. Kildare fixed her with a stern look, then continued her rant. "It specified on the box that a battery would be included, and there was nothing! My daughter spent over a grand on that video camera for her vacation, and she had no battery! It would have taken three weeks to order that type of battery, luckily we have some connections." She paused and caressed her fur coat, as if to emphasize her importance. "I want to know what you're going to do to make this right."

Leah glanced again at the box the camera came in, but this gleaned no new information. "Like I said before, Mrs. Kildare, you can call the supplier and explain what happened, and they will give you a replacement battery."

Mrs. Kildare sniffed. "I don't care about the damn battery! Don't you people check to make sure that all the stock you get is correct?"

"I don't know, I'm just the salesperson," Leah replied heavily. "You'd have to ask Roger, he's the stock supervisor."

"Why didn't you say so in the first place, you stupid girl?" Mrs. Kildare glared at her, then stalked off to speak to Roger. He saw her coming and tried to look busy, but she honed in on him right away.

Leah sighed again, out loud this time. She checked the clock on the check-out computer screen; ten minutes until the end of her shift. "I'm going out the back, Luke," she said to her co-worker, and slowly walked to the stock room. Tired and defeated, she sat down on the old swivel chair that creaked at every movement. The TV was split into four screens showing different parts of the electronic store, and she flicked it over to a different channel. The local news was just finishing, and Leah sat back to wait for The Simpsons to come on.

The anchorwoman shuffled her papers and looked deep into the camera."And finally, our local doctors are uncertain what is causing the outbreak of what appears to be a new strain of the flu virus. The Blackwood Hospital reported ten cases today of people describing symptoms that are affiliated with the virus. Anyone suffering from any of the following symptoms should report to Blackwood Hospital immediately. The current symptoms are: migraines, intense dizziness, disorientation, elevated body temperature, and severe stomach and intestinal pain. Well, that's all from us here at the six o'clock news desk, join us tomorrow for more local news."

Leah blinked; the store manager had taken the day off because he was feeling under the weather. When she'd talked to Seth earlier he'd described Pete's symptoms, and they sounded pretty similar to the ones she'd just heard. _Poor Pete, _she thought. _Sounds like a nasty virus. _As the opening theme for The Simpsons began, all thought of the news bulletin left her, and she settled down for a few minutes of classic cartoon entertainment.

Seth entered the stock room and collapsed on the overstuffed couch. "Man, I just heard Roger trying to deal with Kildare. I wish she'd just shut the fuck up."

"Tell me about it," Leah grinned, and swivelled in the chair to face him. "I've been thinking about leaving the job, though."

Seth sat up. "No way in hell. If you leave, it will be the end of my life as I know it."

"That's a little overdramatic, isn't it?" Leah glanced around at the stock room. "Plus, I don't want to spend the next twenty years here, do you?"

"Not really, I guess. What would you do instead?"

"I'm not sure. As nerdy and crap as this may sound, I'd actually like to work in a bookstore." She waited for him to burst out laughing, but he just nodded and said, "That's cool."

Leah hid her surprise; Seth was one of her closest friends, and he'd never really been book smart or anything like that, but he was a popular guy when they had been in school. Leah had also been well liked, but she preferred being alone with books and music rather than socialising every weekend.

The clock above the surveillance TV hit six o'clock. "Thank God." Leah scooted out of the chair and punched her time card. "What time do you finish?" she asked Seth as she put on her jacket.

"I'm on till close." Seth pretended to shoot himself.

"Too bad. Tell you what, how about we go to the movies tomorrow?"

Seth shrugged. "Yeah, if you want. Give me a call."

"Cool." Leah picked up her shoulder bag. "See you."

Seth did a girly wave. "Bye, honey!"

Leah shook her head and left the stock room. "See you later, Roger. Bye, Luke." They both nodded at her. The automatic doors opened in front of her and the chilly air felt refreshing on her skin. The dusk light cast oranges against the predominantly dark sky. It was beautiful. She got out her car keys and unlocked her silver Camry.

The drive home only took about ten minutes. She pulled up in front of the two storey red brick and killed the engine. She opened the front door to find her mother on the phone, and her step-dad Bill was sitting on the couch watching TV. Leah went into the kitchen for a Coke.


	2. Introduction Part 2

"Just painkillers?" her mom was saying. "Okay. Yes. Thank you, Dr. Lehmann." She hung up the phone and noticed Leah by the fridge. "Hey, Lee. How was work?"

"Average," Leah replied, opening the Coke can and taking a sip. "What did Dr. Lehmann want?"

"Oh, nothing really," her mom waved it off. "Your dad - " Leah flinched a bit; she hated it when her mom called Bill that. " - had a bit of trouble today with a mugger, and now he might have that awful new flu."

Leah quickly looked at Bill. His face was pale, and his breathing was shallow. He looked like death warmed up. "And all Dr. Lehmann can recommend is painkillers?" Leah asked, tucking a wayward strand of dark red hair behind her ear.

Her mom nodded. "He doesn't know anything else that can help the pain. He said he's had a few people today who have caught it and he's stumped." She lifted up her hands.

"On TV at work today it said that anyone who has this virus needs to go to Blackwood," Leah suggested.

"I don't need to go to no hospital," Bill muttered from the couch. "Been through worse than this."

"You know what he's like, Leah. He can tough it out." Her mom started rummaging through the fridge to prepare dinner.

Leah sat down at the dining room table, pulling a thick book from her work bag. As soon as she did this, she could feel Bill's eyes boring into her head. She looked up. "What?"

"You and your books." He harrumphed. "Always readin' something. Why don't you go out and get yourself a boyfriend? You stop wearing those jeans and get yourself some skirts, some guy'll want you."

She shifted in her seat. He was such a creep. She watched her mom for a second; no reaction to his words.

"When did you get mugged?" Leah made an effort to change the subject.

Bill continued to stare her down. "During my break today. Went to the bar for a pick me up, some guy tries to mug me in the alley out back. The fucker bit me." He raised his right hand to show a blood-stained bandage. "I took care of him though."

Leah didn't want to ask how Bill had done that. "Great," she muttered. "Mom, what are you making?"

"Beef schnitzel, mashed potatoes and peas, hon."

"Let me know when it's ready." Leah picked up her stuff and went into her room, bolting the door behind her. The door lock had been installed as soon as she'd found out that her mom was re-marrying. That was about six months ago. It felt like she'd put up with Bill for a lifetime. She couldn't stand him; at first he'd seemed like a decent guy, but after the marriage he became, for lack of a better word, an asshole. Her mother put up with it, though Leah didn't know why, with her real dad she'd had a backbone.

Leah surmised that her mom just wanted everyone to get along, and didn't want another failed marriage.

Half an hour later she was sitting across from Mom and Bill at the dinner table. The seven o'clock news was on. Leah remembered when her mom and dad were still together, the TV was hardly ever on while they ate dinner. Bill always insisted on watching it.

The leading story was about riots happening in Tusmore and Berkeley, two small towns upstate. "Officials have not yet discovered the cause for the civil unrest," finished the anchorman.

Bill dropped his fork. It landed on his plate with a loud clank.

"Are you okay?" Mom asked.

Bill rubbed his forehead. "It's this fuckin' headache, it won't go away."

"Don't swear, Bill," Mom said quietly.

"Shut up. I need some damn Advil," Bill growled.

"Why don't you get it yourself?" Leah said before she could stop herself.

"Don't you give me sass, girl." Bill got up from the table, and for a moment Leah thought she was in real trouble, but he stormed off to the bathroom, cursing under his breath.

"I'm going to bed, Mom," Leah said, dumping her plate into the sink.

"But it's still early yet," she replied.

"I don't care." Leah headed back to her room, walking quickly in the long corridor, and bolted the door again. She changed out of her work clothes and tiredly put on her pyjamas, which consisted of light blue flannel pants and a white camisole. For a few hours she watched TV, then her eyelids grew heavy and she went to sleep. She woke up what seemed like minutes later to strange sounds. She glanced at her clock radio - eight am. Groggily she got out of bed and pressed her ear to the door, trying to make out the sounds.

She unbolted the door and opened it. At the end of the corridor, near her mom and Bill's room, her mom was lying on the ground. Bill was kneeling over her, and oddly enough appeared to be nuzzling at her neck. "What's going on?" Leah asked, and Bill raised his head sharply. A bloody chunk of skin was hanging from his teeth, and only then Leah saw that her mother was twitching in a growing pool of blood. "Oh my god," Leah whispered. Then Bill made an unearthly screeching sound and began to run towards her.

Leah hurriedly slammed her door and bolted it a second before a large bang shook the whole room. He was trying to break in.

"Fuck," Leah said, her hands pressed against her forehead, trying not to hyperventilate. _What the hell is going on? _The banging on the door continued; Bill kept wailing and making awful noises. She looked around her room frantically for something, anything, that could fight him off. Nothing. She couldn't fight him with her bare hands, he was much stronger than she was.

Finally Leah looked at her window. It was about four feet wide and five feet long. Without thinking about anything else but escape, she slid the glass panel along. Taking one last look around her room for things she might need, she took her car keys and phone, putting them in her pyjama pants pocket. Stepping on her bed, she slowly went through the window and lowered herself down on the ground. She slid the window shut as the bedroom door caved in and Bill staggered through, looking around with wide eyes. But he wasn't alone.

Leah's mom stood with him, and when she spotted Leah, she ran to the window and screeched at the glass. Leah reeled back. Her mom and Bill pressed blood-stained hands against the glass, trying to reach her. Tears fell down her face. She wasn't sure what was going on, but she knew that the thing in there wasn't her mother anymore.


	3. Escape

Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who reviewed the story so far! I like hearing feedback about my stories, and constructive feedback does help. Also story suggestions would be great, if you have any ideas as to where the story should go, I'd love to hear them, because right now I'm just writing stuff from scratch!

Squirrelly Rath: Thanks for your constructive criticism. Yeah, I know the whole ... was a bit meh, I was trying to divide the Introduction chapter into two because I thought it was a bit long, and that was unfortunately the only thing that I could come up with :P Also, do you think that Leah and the other characters should wise up and start referring to them as zombies? Or should they just go on referring to them as 'those things', and not really have a clue? I'd love to hear your opinion.

shinbusta/gabe: Hehe thanks for that comment, hope you like it so far.

Yeoman1000: Thanks buddy, hope you like!

waterswind: Thank you for your comment, please let me know what you think of upcoming chapters.

Well that's enough chatter, here's a chapter that I pretty much just wrote today, after this one I haven't got anything written, so bear with me as I write new stuff! Let me know what you think!

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Unlocking the side gate, Leah flung it open and sprinted towards her car parked on the kerb. The sound of thumping made her spin around, and she could see the front door shuddering. They were trying to get out. Her hand trembled uncontrollably as she tried to put the key in the door lock. A scream from down the road startled her, and she looked up to find a woman running from her house, closely pursued by a blood-splattered man.

The key slid into the lock, and Leah climbed in the car. The front door of her house opened wide, and her mom and Bill stumbled through. For a moment, Leah looked at her mother. Her neck was almost completely ripped out, her white nightgown stained with dark blood. _How could she still be standing? _She wasn't particularly concerned about Bill; she couldn't imagine another guy who was a worse father. But her mom - her flesh and blood, her constant supporter - stood there with her monster of a father-in-law, her eyes strangely glazed. When she spotted Leah in the car, she moaned and lunged forward.

"Shit." Leah turned the key in the ignition, and the car came to life. Slamming her foot on the gas, she sped away from her house, her mom and Bill still in pursuit. Her hands clutched the wheel so tightly that her knuckles were white. She glanced out the car window; the woman she'd seen running was now sprawled on a neighbour's neatly manicured lawn, having her throat ripped out by her attacker.

The sight made her gag, and she turned off her street. Her mom and Bill finally fell behind. "Holy shit," Leah chanted over and over quietly, not realising she was doing it. As she turned onto a main road, she saw several people running away from a group of about twenty blood spattered people. She hit the brakes. Some of those in the group were missing limbs. One woman was trying to run forward, her intestines spilling out onto the street, her head lolling back as only a small bit of skin kept it from falling off completely.

Leah put the car in reverse and sped backwards. Putting it in drive, she tried a different road. This one was almost clear; a few cars sped past her, as well as an ambulances and a police car. The sudden sound of one of her favorite songs scared the wits out of her, until she realized it was her ringtone. She fumbled around in her pocket for her phone, keeping her eyes on the road. She flipped it open. "Hello?"

"Leah! Jesus, are you okay?" Seth.

"What the fuck is going on?" Leah asked, her voice high and panicked.

"I have no idea. Where are you?"

"Uh - " Leah searched around her for a street sign. Even though this was her neighborhood, she was in too much shock to remember street names. "I'm on Lakeside Avenue, near my house. I'm in my car."

"Good. Can you get to work?"

Leah stared incredulously at her phone for a second. "What the fuck are you talking about? There are people everywhere with no arms or legs and their guts hanging out, and you want me to come into work?"

"No, no, no, I'm at work right now, locked in the damn store. Can you get here?"

"Oh." She felt a bit stupid, but that subsided as she swerved to avoid a man covered in blood. She wasn't sure if he was one of the attackers or one of the victims. "Okay. Is it safe there?"

"Not really." Leah heard a bit of shouting in the background. Seth wasn't alone. "There's a few people outside, they're trying to get in. Jesus Christ, he's a new one. Shit, he's missing half his fucking head!"

Leah flinched. _How could these people still be alive? _"Great." She turned onto another street where she saw a little girl, probably only about seven years old, halfway through devouring the leg of a dead man. The girl hissed as Leah drove past, but then continued chewing on the leg until the man started to get up from the ground "What the hell?" She watched in her rear view mirror as he began making the same noises as Bill. And her mom.

"What is it, Leah?" Seth's voice startled her.

"Nothing. I'll be there soon. Just hang on." She closed her phone shut and put it on the passenger seat, on top of a packet of photos she'd picked up a few days ago. The photos were from her eighteenth birthday party that she'd had last week. She knew it contained pictures of her friends, including gross photos of her and Seth making faces. It hurt thinking about what had happened to her friends. She also knew that there was one photo of her with her mom, taken when the birthday cake was brought out. It seemed so long ago.

Her mom. What had happened to her? Leah couldn't understand it. If Bill had attacked her, why didn't Leah hear anything? Wouldn't her mother have screamed? Then it dawned on her. Leah was a pretty heavy sleeper. Her mom probably did cry out, but she didn't hear it. _Why didn't I wake up sooner? It's all my fault._

She turned onto another street. This was the road she needed. Several cars sat in awkward positions along the street; it would be hard to navigate her way through them. One car was shaking violently, and she drove past just in time to see a man ripping the intestines out of a girl about the same age as her. A tear fell down Leah's face as she realised the girl was still alive, and seeing her own insides spill out. Leah wiped her cheek and concentrated. She managed to get through a gap between two cars, slightly scraping the sides of her Camry. Only yesterday Leah would have been heartbroken if anything had happened to her precious car.

But things like that didn't seem to matter anymore.


	4. The Clock Is Ticking

SlackerInTraining: Thanks for your comment, gotta love gore hehe!

SC Girl: Thank you for your suggestions :) Don't worry, they won't be in the store for long - it's an electronics store, they don't have much in the way of food there! I never really intended for it to be set there anyway, so you can rest assured that it won't be a boxed in story! Thanks again, and I hope you like this chapter.

CrichtonFan: Gothgoddessrhia is awesome, "As The World Dies" is a fabulous story, I can't get enough! She was great inspiration for me to give the zombie genre a try myself. And like I said to SC Girl, they won't be trapped in the store forever, they'll get to roam around and all that :P I still have no idea what's going to happen next, I'm just writing it as I go! Thanks for the feedback.

poweroflove14: Thanks for your comment, I think detail is important in stories. It's why I always hated writing stories for school assignments, you have to stick to the word limit and that can often mean cutting out the really cool details. Thank god I don't have to do that here!

Author's Note: Okay. Yet another chapter I came up with out of nowhere. I thought I was being quite original when a certain event unfolds here, until my cousin John mentioned that the same thing pretty much happened in "Dawn of the Dead", I was like, damn it! But hopefully it will still be a little bit different, let me know if you pick what I - well, accidentally stole - from "Dawn of the Dead" hehe. Also, please let me know if you want the characters to know about zombie movies and call them zombies etc, because soon I'll need to start doing that, and I would like to know if that is what you all prefer! Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

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The electronic store came into view on the right side of the road. Leah kept driving, slowing down to avoid deserted cars and in some cases, remains of bodies. After passing one particularly mangled body of an old man, she was relieved to see the rest of the road was mostly clear. As she came closer to the store, she could see five people slowly shuffling around in front of the store. Leah pulled off the road at a safe distance. She dialed Seth's number.

"Hey, are you close?" he asked.

"I'm parked on the street, can you see me?"

"No, I can't look for you. Those things out there go apeshit when they see people. We hid for a while and then they calmed down. I don't want to get them fired up."

"So how do I get to you?" Leah questioned. "The loading dock?"

"Yeah, that might work. Just hang on." There was a pause, accompanied by footsteps. "None of them are out the back. At least, none that we see on the surveillance monitor."

"That's reassuring." Leah swivelled to look over her shoulder. Nothing behind her.

Thump! One of them slammed against the driver's seat window. "Fuck!" she screamed and dropped her phone. Her foot found the gas pedal and she drove away. The thing had left a bloody smear on the glass.

"Leah? Leah!" She could hear Seth's voice shouting anxiously.

Picking up the phone, she took a steadying breath. "I'm here," she replied.

"What happened?"

"One of the... I don't know what they are, but one of them scared the shit out of me." In her rear-view mirror, she could see it stumbling after her. The blood drained from her face as three more sprang into view, in hot pursuit of the car. "I can't stop now, it looks like you're opening the loading dock!" Leah turned the wheel and circled round, trying to shake them off. She was heading away from the store now, and soon her way would be blocked by those cars.

"Damn it! Hold on." Seth spoke in a muffled voice to someone, then he began shouting. Leah made out the words, 'just open it'. Obviously there were people in the store who didn't want the dock opened. Then Seth came back on the phone. "Okay, once you're close the dock will open. We'll stay open until you can drive your car in. But if there are any of them out there, we have to close it and you'll have to go somewhere else for a while and try again later, I guess." Seth sighed. "I'm sorry, but I thought he'd listen. It's Roger who's saying most of the no's, and that's probably because he's a complete asshole." Seth said the last few words a bit louder, as if Roger was listening.

"Just get it open! And I'll be coming in fast, so make sure everyone is out of my way." Leah slammed the phone shut and put it back in her pocket. She hit the brakes and the car screeched to a halt, mere inches away from the first car in her path. Putting the car into reverse, she sped backwards and spun the car round to face the direction of the store. She'd seen it done in the movies, but had never attempted it in real life before. She was more than relieved that it worked; a flipped car was the last thing she wanted.

The three fast ones were about fifteen yards away, and the one that had bashed against the window was slowly limping towards her, arms outstretched. "Okay," she whispered to herself, clutching the steering wheel even tighter. "Here goes." She accelerated forward, knocking the first one to the ground. The car lifted a bit as the body was squashed under the tires. It took every ounce of self-control she had not to scream. The second one glanced off the hood and rolled off the car. The third one hit the windscreen and remained there, scratching at the glass and smearing blood everywhere.

"Shit!" Leah swerved and it fell off the car, tumbling onto the bitumen. The windscreen was smeared with blood; she could barely see where she was going. She turned on the windscreen washer nozzle, and water sprayed on the glass, shifting some of the blood. The blood smeared a bit more when she turned the wipers on, but at least now she could see. She dodged the slow one easily and was close to the store. The car turned right and went into the parking lot, heading for the loading bay. The five things in front of the store saw her fly past and began chasing.

Leah was fast approaching a dead end; the brick wall at the end of the alley was getting closer. To get into the loading area she needed to turn left but her car would most likely slam into the wall at that speed. Chewing on her bottom lip, she thought. There was one way she could pull it off, but she wasn't that skilled a driver. _Hell, I did that cool reverse thing, I can do this, _she thought, bolstering her courage. She turned the wheel and applied the brakes, drifting the car sideways along the alley. Tires screeched as the car slid unnaturally along, and eventually came to a stop before the wall.

The things entered the alley. All she had to do was drive down the ramp into the loading dock and that was that. She looked in front of her. The dock wasn't open. "Fuck fuck fuck!" Leah yelled, grabbing her cell phone. The things were about twenty yards away, and moving fast. She quickly pressed a number on her speed dial. Seth answered after two rings. "I'm here, I'm here, open the fucking dock! Hurry!" she screamed into the phone.

"Okay, I can see you on the monitor. Shut up, Roger!" Seth shouted in the background. "Leah, drive now!"

The large dock door began creaking open, ever so slowly rising upwards. Leah shoved her phone into her pocket and the car rapidly moved forward. The door was only opened halfway, at this speed she was going to crash into the door. She was forced to slow down and wait. The things rounded the bend, screeching and making awful sounds.

Finally the door fully opened and the car shot into the dock. "Close it, close it!" Leah cried.

She saw Roger press the button that powered the automatic door, and it began to descend slowly. The things were ten yards away. The door was almost closed when a bloodied, decaying arm shot underneath, desperately clawing for the people within. But the strong metal door was ultimately more powerful, and easily closed completely, severing the arm from its owner. A loud inhuman moan of pain was heard outside, followed by loud bangs on the door.

Leah's head collapsed against the steering wheel, her hands gripped so tight that it was painful. She began to sob, as the horror of the situation she'd just gone through hit her full force. Her mom was gone, and the entire suburb had become a death trap. _What the hell is happening here?_

Her door opened, and Seth's concerned face appeared beside her. "Are you all right?" he asked tentatively.

Leah looked at him. She said nothing.

Seth unbuckled her seatbelt and helped her out of the car. She was pale and shaking with shock, and seeing the severed arm laying on the cement didn't help any. "Come on," he said gently, leading her from the loading dock into the stock room. They sat down on the overstuffed couch, where less than a day ago they had been laughing and complaining about customers. It all seemed like a pleasant dream to Leah now.

"Nice PJs," Seth smiled a little.

Leah gazed up at him blankly. "What is going on?"

Seth breathed out heavily, the exhaustion he felt becoming apparent. "We'll go into the store. There's something you should see."


	5. Explanations

Squirrelly Rath: Thanks heaps for your review, and your mother definitely has it right about using details! So you don't think that they should know about the zombies? I'm still not sure how I'm going to play it, but if it were real life, if we saw people like that wandering around and eating others, we'd think zombies, wouldn't we? Hmm, I have much pondering to do! And thanks for adding me to your faves, I appreciate that, and thank you again for reviewing.

CrichtonFan: Hey thanks for commenting on the flow :) I tried to make it as fluid as possible, like a real car chase (even though it's not technically a car chase, more like one car driving and bumping things hehe) so I'm glad you liked it. Hope you like this one!

Author's Note: Okies, this is my last chapter for a week or so, since tomorrow I'm going on a trip with my two best friends Karah and Scott. We're going to the Gold Coast (for those of you who don't know, it's a really cool part of Australia with four theme parks and heaps of stuff to do) and I really hope that it's worth all the money I've invested it. Hopefully when I get back people will have left comments and suggestions about where the story should go because, like I've said before, I still don't have any clue where this is heading and I'm just making it up on the spot! Hope you like this chapter!

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"In under twenty four hours, the majority of the country has been gripped in panic and violence. Horrible images of mayhem and savagery have been captured by all of the networks, and we have permission to use them in this report. The following footage is extremely violent and graphic, and is considered to be very disturbing. You have been warned."

Flick. An enormous crowd writhing and screaming.

Flick. A field reporter being mobbed by four decaying people.

Flick. Military men burning bodies.

The images flittered past, all accompanied by both the horrified screams of the victims and the haunting wails of the attackers. Leah stared at the plasma wide screen TV, too scared to look the away. What she was seeing was on the other twenty TVs in the store anyway, so there was no point in not watching. It surrounded her. But eventually she couldn't watch it anymore, it was terrifying. She turned around on the swivel chair, which had been brought out of the stock room. Seth was still watching the main TV, an unreadable expression on his face.

"What do you think it is?" Leah wondered, breaking the silence.

Seth took his eyes from the screen. "I don't have a clue," he admitted. "From the reports, I don't think anyone does. They're all confused - one group says it's a disease, another thinks we're being attacked from within by terrorists. One guy was on there earlier claiming it was an 'alien conspiracy to create mass panic amongst us homo sapiens', or some shit like that." He smiled half-heartedly, and Leah knew he was trying very hard to project an image of normality.

"What happened to your family?" she asked after a moment.

The smile slipped from his face, and he focused on the TV again. "I paged Dad today. There was no answer."

Leah understood the implications of this. Seth's dad was a doctor, and he always answered his pager. Always. It was sad; Mr. Alexander was a really nice guy, and dedicated to his job as well as his family. A lump formed in her throat as she thought about how he'd been a better father figure than Bill. Or her biological father. "I'm sorry, Seth," she whispered.

His eyes glistened for a second, and then he seemed to pull himself together. "What happened your mom and step-dad?"

She told him about the events that lead up to her arrival at the store. He whistled. "That's harsh. Are you okay?"

"Not really. I think I'm still numb to it," Leah answered. "It's like I'm waiting for it to kick in. My mom is... well, she's either got the disease, is a victim of terrorist attack, or part of the alien invasion. A neverending list of possibilities." She abruptly got up from the chair, not wanting to talk about it anymore. Then something occured to her. "How come you never went home?"

Seth went to a glass display case and checked out his reflection. Immediately out of habit he began fixing his black and blue hair. "Don't even get me started on that fucking drama. About ten minutes before we closed, Pete came in. You should have seen him, he was pale and sweaty and shaking. Said he needed to get some money out of the safe. Well, he went into the stock room, and he didn't come back for about ten minutes." He paused to correct one bit of hair that wasn't exactly right.

"And?" Leah prompted when he didn't keep talking.

"Oh yeah, sorry. Anyway, at that point Luke and I were re-aligning a display shelf that had come loose, and suddenly Pete staggers out, and he looks crazy, and he's making all these noises. Then he lunges for me and Luke, and like straight away Luke whacks Pete in the face with the shelf and Pete goes down. I was like, what the fuck? And then Luke starts dragging him out of the store and locking the automatic doors. Now, I thought Pete was dead. There was blood on the floor and everything. Then we saw Pete get up, and he started banging on the doors."

"Like the people that chased me down?" Leah asked.

"Yeah. He was one of them," Seth finished, a bewildered look on his face. "Luke still hasn't told me why he did it, but I don't really care, now I'm glad he did. So we stayed overnight. I didn't want to go out there, I was shitting myself. And then you arrived. So now we need a plan."

Leah nodded absently, still processing the rest of the info. Pete was one. Bill was one. They both had the new flu symptoms. It seemed that the 'flu' and the violence happening were inextricably linked. She walked behind the counter and began rummaging through the top drawer.

"What are you doing?" Seth asked.

She pulled out a case that held a gold key. It was the key that enabled them to get to the convenience store that was next to them on the strip mall. "We need food before we do anything else."

"Good thinking, 99." Seth went into the stock room, and moments later Roger and Luke emerged.

"Well you can go get it then, since you brought those things with you," Roger said, folding his arms. Since Leah's arrival, ten more had joined the five in the loading bay, hammering on the door. There were no more out front, so they could move freely. For the time being.

"I am not going in there alone!" Leah said vehemently. "There could be more in there!"

"That's your problem now, isn't it?" Roger answered, a smug smile on his face. Luke stood behind him, not saying a word. He was gazing intently at the ground. For a moment, Leah felt sorry for him. Luke never did anything without Roger's say-so. That was no way to live, being someone else's puppet.

"Dude, quit being the asshole that we all know you are, and for once, give someone else a fucking hand," Seth entered the conversation. "If we all go in, armed with something, we should be okay. No way are we only sending one person for food, you might as well kill them on the spot for all the use it'll do, jackass."

A slight smile appeared on Luke's face, but disappeared when Roger rounded on him for some support. "I don't know, Rog. I kind of agree with Seth."

Roger began to turn red. Leah was shocked that Luke actually made a decision that was different to Roger's. Seth just looked at him, one eyebrow raised. "Don't have an aneurism," he said to Roger. "Now, what do we have in the way of weaponry, hmm?" He went into the stock room.

"I don't think it would be much. We're a fucking electronic store," Leah sighed. "At this point, I think working in a gun store would have been the best job." She was slowly getting over her initial shock at what she'd been through, but she still felt an ache in her chest when she thought about her mom.

Part of her wanted to look at the photos of her mother, her aunts and uncles, her cousins and her friends, the other part wanted to burn them, so that maybe she could burn away the pain too. _I hope they're okay, _she thought. But the chance that all of her family and friends coming out of this unscathed was laughable. There had to be casualties. _When there's time, I'll call them. _That reminded her; she needed a phone charger. The electronic store had some use after all.

"I think the only thing we have are these planks," Seth came out of the stock room with a large wooden plank a little bit thicker and wider than a baseball bat.

"And shelves," Leah suggested, considering that a shelf took out Pete for a while.

"You're not seriously doing this," Roger said firmly.

"If you want to starve, that's fine by me, buddy," Seth replied. "We need to get food, think of a plan, and get the fuck out of here as soon as possible. So..." Seth handed a plank to Luke and shoved one into Roger's hands. He had a wolfish grin on his face. "... let's get some munchies."


	6. Ruby

Squirrelly Rath: Yeah, that was a long enough review:) What I'm thinking in regards to Leah's emotional fluctuations - how one minute she seems okay and the next she's a bit fragile and disturbed - I guess I'm doing it that way because in a crisis situation you wouldn't really be in shock all the time hopefully! At crucial moments you can sort of suck it up and be brave, and then when you've got a minute to yourself is when all the emotional outpouring begins. As soon as Leah stops talking to somebody, she starts thinking about things and getting upset, so she needs to keep herself distracted. I think in the end I will have the characters realise that these creatures are zombies, I'm already getting tired of writing 'the things'! Anyway, hope you like this chapter!

SC Girl: Thanks for your comment! I figure that no one can be strong all the time, right? So Leah is a mix of a strong and fragile person, it just depends on the situation she's in. I hope this chapter was worth the wait!

Angel of Deth47: Thank you for your comment, I'm glad you're liking stuff so far.

CrichtonFan: I agree, I don't think that they should automatically jump to the 'zombie' conclusion immediately, but I think it will be coming up soon, maybe within the next few chapters? I don't know yet, I'm still writing this stuff spontaneously! Let me know what you think of this chapter as well.

Author's Note: Well, I'm back from my vacation! It was quite a good week away, but I got sick of the two friends I was staying with after a while. I guess when you're in someone's company ALL THE TIME you start to get annoyed and irritable with them. It gave me some insight though into human behavior - if a group is constantly together, they will start to attack each other pretty much. So I might be able to incorporate that into the story! Yay, I learnt something. Anyway, it's good to be back, and I hope that this chapter was worth the wait, I'll try and get another one up in the next few days! So please review it, and also let me know if you have any ideas at all as to where you want this story to go!

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Leah turned the gold key over in her palm, mulling over the possibilities. The manager of the Snack Shack next door was a really nice lady named Ruby, and became such good friends with Pete that she'd given him the key to get quicker access to the store. Ruby had been great to Leah on several occasions, especially when Leah hadn't received her pay check in time. Ruby could either be at home, safe and sound, or with family, or still in the store. Leah wasn't sure what to expect.

"Are you ready?" Luke asked her.

She jumped a little, startled. Luke had barely spoken to her in the entire time they'd known each other. "I guess." She clutched the metal shelf in her free hand. "Well, I'm scared shitless to be honest, but we need to eat, right?"

Luke nodded. "And then we need to figure out how to get out of here, before more of them come."

Leah heard the sound of distant bangs on metal; the people trying to get into the loading dock. "That's true. How long do you think we have?"

He exhaled heavily. "Well, it's almost nine am. I'd say we should be out here as soon as possible, like an hour from now. It would be better to travel in daylight."

Leah concealed an odd look; she didn't quite understand why daylight would be any better. She just nodded.

Seth clicked the store phone off. "No answer from Ruby, so she's either not in the store or..."

"Or she's chewing off her own foot," Roger interjected. "No fucking way am I going in there."

"Jesus, Rog. Stop being a dickless wonder," Seth picked up his plank and swung it around a few times.

"I think it would be better for all of us if he stayed in here," Leah put in.

Seth made a noise. "Fine. He'd be annoying anyway."

Roger threw his plank aside and sat down on the swivel chair. "Have fun," he smirked, and turned to watch the plasma TV, which was still broadcasting images of horror from all over the country.

Leah was still shocked at how fast the problem had spread; one minute everything was fine, and the next she was seeing things happen that were so unnatural they could have been taken straight from a nightmare.

Seth swore under his breath, and mimed hitting Roger with the plank.

"Don't," Leah chastised. "Let's just get this over with."

"All he's getting is one fucking tin of sweet corn," Seth stuck his finger up at the back of Roger's head, before settling down and giving Leah his trademark quirky smile.

She made an effort to smile back, despite how squeamish she began to feel. She didn't know what was going to happen, and not being in control frightened her to death. Leah had always preferred well-planned things to spontaneity, and she liked to know exactly what she would do and when she would do it. Walking into the Snack Shack, armed with a bit of wood, fighting the weirdest disease she had ever seen, was not the sanest idea.

At least Seth was there, being the brave hero type. But she knew that deep inside he would be in unbearable pain. Seth had a big family, with the parents, two older brothers and a younger sister. Leah couldn't help but think that if his dad was gone, then so were the rest of them. She sincerely hoped this was not the truth. In her case, she had no siblings - just her mom. Her biological dad had left them when she was fourteen, and it hurt every time she thought about him. He'd been a good man, but Leah supposed that her parents just had differences they couldn't sort out.

All that didn't matter now. What truly mattered was getting supplies, and finding somewhere safe. Figuring out what the hell was going on was also on top of her list. It disturbed her to think about whether or not the people she'd run over to get to the store could be helped. From what she'd seen, it didn't look like they had anything that could be cured. The people just looked... crazed. Hungry. Inhuman.

"Are we good to go?" Seth queried, looking first at her and then Luke. Leah nodded slightly, and as she picked up a thick piece of metal shelving she swallowed back the bile that rose in her throat. Luke had a look of steely determination on his face, and looked a hell of a lot more confident than Leah felt. "Okay," Seth practised swinging his plank again. "If there's anyone in there that are like the people outside, take care of them."

"Make sure they're dead," Luke added fiercely.

Leah paled. She never thought she'd have to deliberately kill anybody. When she'd been driving her car, it seemed like the necessary course of action. But to purposefully bash someone to death was something she wasn't sure she was prepared for. "Are you sure they need to be dead?"

"Yes," Luke insisted. Leah had never seen him be so steadfast on any issue. "It's either you or them. Hit them until they die."

Leah clutched the metal shelving as tight as she could. If this disease was now truly nationwide, then she would have to get used to the 'us or them' mentality until a cure was found. Or until there was no one alive to cure. She shook off that feeling of dread, and put on a brave face. "Fair enough," she answered quietly. "But I really don't want to go in there first."

Seth gave her a look of understanding, and gently took the gold key that she still held. "I'll go in first, then you follow me, and then Luke, okay?"

Leah smiled a little. When Seth and her used to go to theme parks with friends, she always wanted to sit in the middle on rides. She felt safer that way. She was glad he remembered that. It was one of the few truly happy memories she had.

Seth led the way through the stock room, towards the right wall. The thick double doors that lead to the Snack Shack were still firmly locked. Seth took a different key from his pocket, a silver one, to unlock the doors. The gold key would unlock the door at the end of the short corridor they had to go through.

Seth pulled the doors open wide, and immediately jumped back. "Shit!"

A person was crouched over a dead body at the end of the small corridor, tearing away chunks of flesh. It looked up when Seth shouted, and ran towards him, screeching. Seth quickly recovered from the initial shock and whacked it over the head with his plank. The thing went down, but after a moment began to get up.

"Smash its fucking head open!" Luke yelled, and Seth began to hit the thing repeatedly on the head, until finally its skull caved in, oozing pink and grey brain and fragments of bone.

Leah's stomach churned at the sight, and barely managed to force the vomit back down, leaving a horrible burning in her mouth. Seth had his hands on his knees, panting from the effort, his clothes spattered in bloody chunks.

But what caused Leah's insides to truly quiver with disgust and horror was when she realised that the corpse on the ground was Ruby's. What was more disturbing though was the fact that Ruby - or what used to be Ruby - was now slowly peeling herself off the cold cement, uttering those familiar unearthly sounds, and started staggering towards them.


	7. Stocking Up

CritchtonFan: Thanks for your review, and I'm glad I managed to pull off a cliffhanger! I think I'm doing it with this chapter as well, but after that, I'll stick to fully finished chapters for a while. The zombie thing will be happening soon, but like you said, not for a few chapters yet. And thank you, my vacation was still good despite me getting sick of my friends. At least I don't live with them! Hope you like this chapter. Don't worry about long reviews as well if you don't want, even three words from you is great :)

Author's Note: Hmm. Still have no clue where this story is going. Luckily my cousin John gave me some inspiration for the events that happen from the end of this chapter to the upcoming chapter. I don't know what I'd do without him! So read, and please review and let me know what you think!

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"Jesus fucking Christ," Seth uttered, completely stunned.

"Ruby?" Leah lowered the metal shelf, not wanting to believe what she was seeing.

Ruby shuffled toward them, her legs almost eaten to the bone, her eyes glazed. She growled.

"No," Leah shook her head. "No, this can't be happening."

"Use your fuckin' eyes, Leah!" Luke said forcefully. When neither Leah or Seth moved forward to take care of Ruby, he raised his plank and did the job himself.

Leah turned away, a hand pressed against her mouth. Seth just stared, jaw clenched, watching Luke hit Ruby over and over until she lay limp on the ground, with barely any face left. Pieces of skull and brain lay intermingled in a disgusting mess where her head used to be. Luke had been thorough.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Leah screamed at him, glancing from Luke to Ruby's deformed corpse.

Luke wiped his forehead, smearing blood onto it. "She was one of them," he said. "Wasn't it obvious? I had to do it."

Leah looked at him incredulously; he'd just murdered a good friend of hers without any hesistation and apparently no remorse. "No, you didn't have to do anything! There could be a cure for this!" She turned to Seth for some support. He was still blankly staring at what remained of Ruby. She knew she was being irrational, but she couldn't help it.

Luke sighed, resting the plank - now covered in blood and grey matter - on his shoulder. "Leah, be reasonable. Her legs were bone, and someone had just been eating her torso. There's no coming back from that."

He was right, of course. She slowly sank to the ground, not taking her eyes off Ruby's mangled body. Tears slipped free from beneath her eyelids, and she pressed her fingers into the tear ducts to stem the flow. Now was not the time for crying. After taking a few moments to breathe and calm down, she got up again, and looked at Luke. "You did the right thing."

His stern expression faded. "I'm sorry that I had to do it, but it was the only choice."

Leah nodded. "I understand. It's just... I knew her, and it was hard seeing her being put down like that. I'll be fine, let's just get in the store and get what we need. Seth, are you all right?"

Seth finally glanced up. "Yeah, sure. I didn't think Ruby would - never mind, it's cool, let's just go." He carefully stepped around Ruby's remains and held his plank tightly, expecting the worst. Leah followed behind, and Luke brought up the rear.

They approached the end of the corridor. Seth pulled the gold key from his pocket, and unlocked the double doors. "Here we go," he said over his shoulder. "I'll go in and pretty much hit anything that moves, you guys keep a look out, okay?" He shoved the doors open and looked around wildly, brandishing his plank like a baseball bat. Leah and Luke entered behind him, weapons raised. When nothing moved in the store, Leah slowly lowered her shelf. What she'd learned in the last hour of dealing with this crisis was that the things would strike immediately if they saw people.

"Check the aisles just in case," Luke suggested.

They slowly moved down the aisles of the reasonably large store. Nothing except for a few bloodied footprints. The radio was still on, and Leah heard a man talking about the viral epidemic sweeping the nation. Suddenly it switched to an old rock song, and she looked over to see Seth fiddling with the radio. "I didn't think they'd be broadcasting any music, considering everything that's happened," Leah said.

Seth looked up. "They're not. One of Ruby's mix tapes is in here." He smiled sadly. "I thought it would be the right kind of tribute."

A lump formed in Leah's throat. She couldn't believe Ruby was gone.

"I think we're okay," Luke joined them at the counter after finishing his perusal of the store. "We need to get as much food as possible and get out of here."

"How much can you fit in your trunk?" Seth asked Leah.

"I'd say about fifteen bags, maybe twenty if we really squeeze it," she figured. "And maybe a few bags in the backseat as well."

"Okay, cool. We should still only take what we need - bottles of water, canned food, all that shit. Maybe you could take a Coke or two, but not much," Seth said to Leah, a small smile on his face. "I hope you won't go crazy without your caffiene."

She shook her head. "There's more important stuff than that to worry about. Plus I could get a Coke anywhere, this is the land of vending machines." Feeling a bit uneasy, she started being serious. "Let's just get this over with."

Seth handed them some plastic bags from behind the counter, and they all scoured the aisles for the food they'd need. Canned food was ideal, long-life milk, bottles of water. The necessities.

The double doors banged open and Leah immediately raised her shelf, her heart pumping a mile a minute. Instead of a bloodied half eaten person stumbling through, she saw Roger stroll in. "For fuck's sake!" Leah yelled, annoyed. "What are you doing here?"

"Getting food. You guys don't know what I like," Roger said, being a smart ass as usual. "Was that Ruby back there, with the dead dude?"

"Yeah," Seth replied, resting his plank on his shoulder in the wake of the scare.

"Too bad, she was hot." Roger shook his head, and wandered through the fruit and veg aisle.

Leah simmered. He was such an insensitive prick. She took a breath and began putting cans into her bag. Corn. Peas. Pears in syrup. All the stuff that she hardly ate, and here she was, piling it in. _Looks like I'll have to get used to it. _She looked up when she heard Seth humming a tune casually while perusing the shelves. He was still acting fairly normal, despite everything that happened. Leah wished she had that kind of resilience.

"You know what we need? Some fuckin' booze," Roger commented, looking at the large walk-in freezer.

"That's not a necessity, man," Seth rejected the idea, despite being fond of a drink or two. "We only take what we'll need."

"Yeah, and I need some beer," Roger replied as if he was talking to a two year old.

"Whatever," Seth dismissed him and kept filling up his bags.

Roger opened the freezer door and stepped inside. The door shut behind him.

"What a dick," Luke muttered.

"How come you never stood up to him before today?" Seth asked.

Luke shrugged. "I'm an easy-going guy. A pushover, really. But I figure with all the shit that's going down, I don't have to be a doormat anymore."

Seth nodded. "Fair enough."

"Do we want a trolley for all this?" Leah glanced at Seth and Luke.

"I'd think so," Seth answered.

Leah headed over to the large glass windows near the entrance. The streets were chaotic; cars everywhere, there was even a bus outside. In the distance she could see smoke from a fire rising into the sky. Several people were running in the street, being pursued by a few of the attackers. She felt sad that she couldn't help them; Leah was one of those people who tried to put other people first, and if she didn't, she'd feel incredibly guilty. It was eating away at her. She shook it off, and put her bags into a trolley.

She heard a scream, which oddly enough sounded muffled.

"Fuck!" Seth yelled.

Leah whirled around to see Seth and Luke run to the freezer. She hurried towards it, leaving the trolley behind. Roger was beating on the glass with his fists, and Leah saw a frozen person stumbling towards him. Its limbs were iced over, accounting for its slow jerky movements. Roger was unarmed and trapped. "Help me!"


	8. Cold As Ice

arianin: Thanks for your comment! Eventually once things quieten down in the story I can get into character backgrounds and stuff, I know that I like reading about people's histories and stuff like that, so I'll definitely be working on it. "As The World Dies" is a fantastic story, Gothgoddessrhia is the best fanfiction writer I've ever had the pleasure to read! That story should be turned into a book, that would be awesome. Anyway, hope you like this chapter! Let me know what you think.

CritchtonFan: Yep, cliffhanger! I'm getting used to them now and, ashamedly, I've done one for this chapter. I can't help myself! So Leah's reaction was good in response to Ruby being slightly, well, dead? Thanks :) Hope you like!

miss-scarlett1: Thanks Nat! And once MSN works for us, we'll definitely catch up on everything that's happened. And thanks for reading my story as well.

Author's Note: Sorry about taking my time with this next chapter, I haven't had a spare moment to breathe this week let alone write another one! And yet somehow I've churned it out, hopefully it's good, I'm not sure at this stage, and seriously, after this I have NO CLUE what's going on with the story. I'm waiting for that little spark of inspiration to hit me! Anyway, onto the chapter - please review!

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Seth threw aside his plank and pulled on the door handle. It wouldn't budge. "Shit!" He looked at the door, noticing the lock. "We need a key!"

Luke raced behind the counter, checking the drawers hurriedly. He paused for a moment, his eyes widening, but then he recovered."Here!" He pulled out a key chain that had several keys on it. He threw the chain at Seth, and removed two other things from the drawer and put them in his pocket. Leah couldn't make out what they were.

Roger attempted to get the thing to fall over by throwing stuff at it. He launched an entire box of beer at the thing, and it fell down heavily. "Hurry, Seth!" Leah cried.

Seth's hands shook as he tried the different keys. "Fuck. Which one?"

Leah looked around frantically for anything that could help. She was contemplating breaking the glass with something when Luke started walking away and along the aisle of refridgerators. He quickly gestured for Leah to follow him. "Keep trying the keys," he said to Seth.

"What are you doing?" Leah didn't understand why walking away from the freezer would get Roger out of it.

"The refridgerators where the frozen food and shit is kept are connected to the walk-in freezer," Luke explained, opening one of the fridge doors. "When you go into the freezer, you can walk behind these fridges - there's a small walkway." He dropped his plank onto the floor and hastily began pulling out frozen boxes of food. "If we remove the shelves, Roger can get out of there by leaving the freezer and coming through here."

"Good thinking," Leah agreed, and immediately helped him clear the top shelf. Boxes of food fell haphazardly on the floor, and they yanked out the top shelf. Two more shelves to go.

"Shit, none of these work!" Seth called, throwing the keys down in frustration. Roger was now backed into a corner, armed with only a glass bottle. They were running out of time. Seth looked at what Leah and Luke were doing, and caught on. "Roger!" he yelled, hoping his voice penetrated the thick glass. "Get into the passageway and you can get out through one of the fridge doors!"

Roger's face didn't register any comprehension. He was too busy staring at the frozen person slowly but surely getting up off the floor.

"Roger!" Seth tried again. Roger finally looked at him, as if just noticing he was there. "Go into the passageway!"

Roger nodded, and gripped the bottle neck tighter.

Luke successfully pulled out the second shelf after a bit of a struggle. "One more and he can get through," he said to Leah, slightly breathless from the effort. "Seth, what's Roger doing?" he called.

"I think he's going to make a run for it, so get ready," Seth answered, watching Roger carefully. The thing was still lurching towards him, and Roger smashed it over the head with the bottle and ran. "Hurry, he's coming now!"

Leah and Luke cleared the last shelf in a hurry, and pulled on it. The shelf resisted. "Shit," Luke muttered. They tugged harder. It started to give, and eventually slid free. Roger barrelled through the fridge doorway, with the thing still pursuing.

Luke slammed the fridge door shut. "Hold it!" he said to Leah.

She pressed her hands hard against the glass, trying not to retch at the sight of the horrible thing she faced. Half of its face was missing, and Leah could see the frozen tendons in its cheek working as it growled at her. It pushed against the door; Leah almost fell backwards but managed to keep balanced, and shoved the door closed again. Seth raced over to help. Roger was breathing heavily, and collapsed onto the floor, pale and shaking.

Luke picked up his discarded plank and slid it through the fridge door handle. He then pushed it until the end of the plank went through the next fridge's handle. Wedging the plank in the door handles kept the door secure, but not fully closed. Its arm reached out of the gap and clawed at them. Leah flinched and moved back.

"That won't hold it for long," Luke panted.

Leah ran over to the trolley and wheeled it closer. "Quick, put your stuff in and let's go." Seth and Luke dropped their bags in it, and scooped various boxes of food from the floor and threw them in as well.

"Rog, are you all right?" Seth asked, shaking Roger's shoulder.

"Yeah," Roger replied, breathless. Seth helped him get up, and Roger stood a little shakily.

Luke was staring at the thing, which had squeezed its head through the gap, snarling and gnashing its teeth. "I found this in the drawer with the keys," he said quietly, and pulled a handgun from his pocket.

Leah's eyes widened. She'd never seen a real gun before.

"There was a pack of bullets as well," Luke added. "I guess Ruby wanted a little firepower."

"Do us a favor and use it on that fuckin' thing," Roger spat, still trying to catch his breath.

"Don't shoot it, man," Seth disagreed. "The sound'll draw every one of them right here, and that's the last thing we need."

"Fuck that!" Roger stood up straighter, his face flushed. "That asshole came this close to ripping me into pieces." He held his thumb and forefinger an inch apart. "Take its fucking head off."

The thing lunged and grabbed the back of Luke's shirt, yanking him against the fridge.

"Shit!" Seth swore, too stunned to do anything.

The thing opened its icy mouth and aimed for Luke's exposed neck. Luke pressed the gun to the thing's head and pulled the trigger. Brains and blood sprayed everywhere, all over Luke and everything within a four foot radius.

Luke leaned against the fridge door for support. "Jesus, what else needs to go wrong?"

Muffled thumps came from the convenience store entrance, and they all turned to see the last thing they wanted to. At least a dozen of them, banging on the glass, bloody handprints everywhere. Snarling, wailing, screeching. Hungry for those within.

And then one of the windows shattered.


	9. Making Plans

miss-scarlett1: Thanks again, Nat. Yeah, my address only works for MSN now, the actual email site shut down, so my only email address is the one. And yes, we'll talk on MSN soon hopefully, if it's stopped playing up!

CrichtonFan: Thanks for your comment :) Yeah, Roger is very... well, annoying. But he's the guy you love to hate, and he'll only keep proving that in the next few chapters! Hope you like this one.

Author's Note: Well, you'll never guess. I actually changed the character perspective in this chapter! Shock horror. Instead of getting stuff from Leah's point of view (like what she's doing, and her thoughts and all that) you'll be reading it from Luke's POV. I decided we needed a different angle on things, and I should be doing that in the future with Seth, and possibly Roger as well, if you want to see how he thinks at all :P Please read and review!

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"Fuck!" Luke yelled, watching as a fist punched through the glass. He couldn't believe their luck, or rather, their lack of it.

"Come on!" Seth grabbed the trolley, and shoved it towards the double doors. The others followed behind.

Luke checked the window over his shoulder. More glass was falling to the floor, and it wouldn't be long before there was enough space for the things to get through. "Hurry, go go go!" he shouted, panicked.

They entered the alleyway. Seth stopped the trolley and pulled the gold key from his pocket. Before the doors closed Luke could hear the sound of chunks of glass falling to the floor, followed by a screech. They were in.

Seth locked the doors, and pushed on them to make sure they were secure. The doors were made of a thick metal, and with any luck they'd hold. "Holy shit," he gasped, pressing one hand to his forehead, the other gripping the trolley handle. "What the hell are we gonna do?"

A thump on the doors echoed in the cement corridor. Luke tried not to flinch; he took a few deep breaths and attempted to get a handle on the situation. "I don't know, but we're not staying here." He glanced at Leah, who was the only one of them who still had their original weapon. She clutched the metal shelving so tightly that a small trickle of blood dripped from the palm of her hand. Her eyes were wide, and she was staring at the doors with fear. Her long dark red hair was dishevelled, and her pyjamas were bloodstained.

Luke looked down at himself and tried not to gag; he was almost covered from head to toe in blood spray and brain. Feeling it all over his face was sickening.

"We'll take the car and drive somewhere," Roger said, looking at the doors with disdain.

"But where?" Luke questioned, trying to ignore the disturbing sensations of someone else's blood trickling down the side of his face.

"I don't fucking know, anywhere!" Roger replied with annoyance. "If we stay here trying to figure it out, we might as well just put ourselves on a fuckin' platter and serve it to them. We get in the car, we drive, then we can work shit out." He rubbed the back of his neck.

"Leah, what do you think? Got any ideas?" Seth asked, distracted by the mass of groans coming from the other side of the doors.

"I don't know," she said quietly, and jumped when the door shuddered. "I don't care where we go, I just want to get out of here."

"See?" Roger gestured towards her. "Finally she listens to me - we get in the car, and we go! Enough said!" He started walking down the corridor towards the electronic store.

"Do you have to be such an asshole?" Luke muttered. Roger didn't hear.

Seth exhaled heavily, and pushed the trolley along, taking a final glance at the doors. "Fine. We'll get all the food loaded into the car, and then we drive."

"But what if there are more out there, still in the loading bay? What the hell do we do then?" Luke wanted to know, walking quickly alongside Seth. Leah followed behind, deliberately avoiding looking at the remains of Ruby and the other mangled corpse that was responsible for Ruby's demise.

"I'm not sure, man," Seth replied. He removed the silver key from his pocket and once they were all back in the stock room, locked the next set of double doors. "I think we've got a little bit of time, these doors are pretty damn thick."

"I don't think we should be worrying about the doors," Roger said in a dull voice.

Luke wanted very badly to shut him up for being such a downer, but then he saw what Roger was looking at. The surveillance monitor displayed a visual of the loading bay, and Luke swore when he saw it. Roughly twenty of them were out there, those at the front banging on the automatic door, others shuffling around aimlessly.

Seth sank onto the couch, staring at the monitor with disbelief. His head was shaking slightly in silent protest of what he saw. "How the fuck did there get so many?"

Luke was about to say something, but the urge to get the blood off his face overpowered anything else. "I'll be back in a sec," he told the others, and headed for the bathroom. He got a shock when he looked in the mirror over the wash basin; pieces of skull lay intermingled with the blood that matted his hair. Turning on the tap, he put his head down under the water stream and scrubbed his scalp raw. Then he washed his face, and checked his reflection again.

Apart from the bloody clothes, the rest of him regained normality. His light brown hair seemed darker after the wash, and the only thing that trickled down his face now was water. He tore some paper towel from the dispenser on the wall and patted his skin dry.

_Think, come on, think of something._ He stared intensely at his image in the mirror, as if the answer to their problems would appear there. _Where can we go? How do we get out? _He heard the faint sounds of two people arguing - Roger and Seth. He ignored them and tried to focus again. They needed some sort of distraction to get the things out of the loading bay, and the only thing he could think of was something he didn't particularly want to do.

His little rusty Ford was still parked out the front. It was a piece of shit car, but the engine made a hell of a lot of noise when started. The car could provide a necessary distraction, and lead the things away from the loading dock. But he knew that Roger would attest that since it was Luke's car, Luke should be the one to do it. He was scared out of his mind, and running out there to start his car and drive to God knows where without being killed and eaten seemed like an impossible task.

_Well, impossible shit is happening all around you. You could probably do it. _He continued looking into the mirror, but he wasn't focusing on his reflection anymore. He was thinking about whether or not the others had realised what those things were yet. He knew immediately when he'd seen Pete stumble out of the stock room last night - he was a zombie.

There was no other explanation for the seemingly fatal wounds that didn't stop them, the hunger for flesh, the total lack of reason. Luke had been close to telling the others what the things were, before the need to get the blood off him was the most pressing matter. He didn't know whether they'd believe him or not, he didn't want to be considered crazy.

Somehow the infection had spread, within a day, across most of the country. It was scary how fast the disease moved; it had already reached epidemic proportions. The truly terrifying thing was that there was no known way to stop it, or to cure the people that were infected. All he knew for certain was that he had to survive, and to do so he would need to follow the cardinal rules - don't get bitten, kill anyone who is bitten, and find a safe haven.

_But first things first. _He left the bathroom, taking a deep breath, and Roger and Seth immediately stopped fighting when Luke said, "I know what we can do."


	10. Details

CrichtonFan: Nope, definitely not getting sick of your reviews! Keep them coming hehe. Thanks for your comments - I decided to change the perspective because always getting things from Leah's POV could get stale after a while. Plus it's good to know what other characters are really thinking, and not just Leah trying to figure out what they're thinking. I should be doing it from Seth's POV in the next few chapters, and possibly Roger's, we'll see! Yeah, adding the dreaded z word was a bit hard, but I'm glad you liked how I put it in, it seemed to work! Thanks for reading, I hope you like this one :)

Author's Note: My god, I'm getting lazier and lazier with the updates! This week's been a little hectic, mainly work and social stuff as per usual. I wrote the first half of this chapter in a week, and the last half I just pounded out tonight. I think I'll be able to get more ideas now, because the plans that unfold in this chapter give me some room to work with, which is good! I hope this was worth the wait, and I'll eventually be getting back to the good zombie gore, sorry about all the talking! I'd say we'll get the gore in the next chapter. Anyway, read and review!

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Leah didn't really know what to say. Luke was pretty brave, offering to risk death to get into his car and hopefully lead the things away so they could escape. But she didn't like the thought of what might happen to him; he could trip and fall, the car might not start, he could crash, he could run out of fuel... the possibilities of something going wrong seemed endless. She was worried.

Roger, on the other hand, was practically jumping for joy. They could escape, and he wouldn't have to lift a finger to help.

Leah took Seth to one side to speak privately with him. "What are you thinking?"

Seth shrugged. "It's a good idea, right?"

Leah hesitated. "In some parts, yeah. But I just keep thinking that things might not work out."

"I know," he replied, a concerned look on his face. "Luke seems to be okay with it. Plus he has a gun, so that helps." Seth began to crack his knuckles, a habit he had when he was worried. "I just hope he pulls it off, so we can get the hell out of here. It sucks that we haven't even decided where we're going yet, though. That's the thing that freaks me out. We could wind up stuck somewhere with no gas because we didn't think it through, and I sure as shit don't want to be stranded."

Leah nodded in agreement. "I've been thinking about where we could go. Maybe the airport? There could be planes leaving the country or something."

"I don't know, they would have said on TV if there were evacuation flights."

"Maybe they didn't, because they knew everyone would go there."

"I guess. The airport could be a death trap, there might be heaps of the things there."

"True." Leah hadn't thought of that. "What else is there? We can't just drive around forever."

"I know that," Seth assured her. "But right now, we need to get out of here before they break in, otherwise we don't have a chance."

Leah nodded again. "Should Luke be going alone, though?"

Seth glanced at Luke, who was sitting down on the swivel chair, then said, "It'd be scary as hell alone."

"Someone should go with him," Leah put forward.

Seth moved his head to one side, cracking his neck, then tilted it to the other side.

"Stop with the cracking!" Leah said, annoyed.

Seth straightened, an apologetic look on his face. "Sorry - you know me, it's my stress relief thing."

"If it weren't so friggin' loud it would be fine, but it sounds like every bone you have is being dislocated," Leah replied with exasperation. She calmed down a bit, deciding that she was being stupid, and walked over to Luke, who was staring at the carpet. "Hey," she said.

He jumped a little, startled out of his reverie. "Hi, what's happening?"

"Not a lot." Leah saw Roger changing the channels on the main plasma to see if anything else was on besides the chaotic footage and the emergency broadcast system. "I was wondering if you wanted someone to go with you?"

Luke seemed slightly surprised that anyone had offered to come with him on this suicide mission. For a moment he was unsure what to say, then he answered, "Yeah. That'd be good." Once again he became tentative before saying, "Who would come with me, though?"

At this point Leah realised that she hadn't even thought about who would join him. She considered the possibilities; if Seth went with Luke, then she'd be alone with Roger which was out of the question. There was no way Roger would go - the concept of doing anything remotely selfless would probably result in Roger having a stroke.

"I will," she said. "The others can take my car, Seth knows how it handles so it should be all right."

"Cool." He smiled slightly. "What I was thinking is that when we drive off after the distraction, we should head to Kip's Station and re-fuel. I have a couple of empty fuel cans in my trunk that I can fill as well, so we're prepared."

"Sounds good," Leah approved. "How far is Kip's from here?"

"Normally ten minutes." Luke frowned. "But with all the cars and buses and other shit blocking the way, it could be close to twenty, if not half an hour. It's worth it though, we'll be needing the gas."

"Well, that's our plan. What can Seth and Rog do?"

Luke thought for a second. "About an hour from here, out in the country, is the Williamstown Gun Club. They should go there and get us some real weapons; wooden planks and shelves aren't going to be a lot of help in the future."

Leah was relieved that Luke had the workings of a good plan in mind. "How did you think of all this?"

Luke shrugged. "It seems like the best thing to do - get fuel, get weapons, get out of the suburbs."

"Yeah, but we were struggling for ideas like ten minutes ago," Leah reminded him. "How did you figure this out so fast?"

He looked at her, as if debating whether or not to tell her something. "It's kind of hard to explain right now, but if you want, I can tell you when we're on the road."

Leah just stared back. She didn't know what to make of Luke; he was a little offbeat, but he appeared to be a decent guy. And he had a plan. "Okay," she said simply.

Luke told the others his ideas, and Seth became enthusiastic. "I'm just happy for any plan, dude," he admitted. "But yours will work, it's good stuff."

Roger's normal expression of smugness stayed firm when he was told he was not part of the suicide mission. "So all we have to do is get guns?"

"Pretty much, yeah," Luke replied. "See if you can barricade yourself into the gun club. If not, then find somewhere else and let us know where you're going. Call Leah's cell if you have any problems."

Roger gave Leah a look. The part of the plan that involved her going with Luke seemed to rub him the wrong way. She didn't pay him any mind, she was too busy regretting the decision she'd made. _I don't think I can handle this, _she thought. _There's so much that can go wrong._

But then Luke glanced at her, and she could see the appreciation in his eyes. He was glad she'd wanted to come with him. She felt guilty about having second thoughts. _You could die at any time, you might as well go out doing something important_, she supposed. And it wasn't like she was going alone. It would be scary, it would be dangerous, and things might not go according to plan, but she had Luke as her support. It would be okay.

_Will it? _That little doubt haunted her in the back of her mind. _Will things ever truly be okay again? _


	11. Evacuation

Ana: Thanks heaps for your review, I'm really glad that you're enjoying it so far! Hehe I think all the major Dawn of the Dead fans have worked out that 'just in case' plan if it ever does happen, I know I've been considering the possibilities lately! It's great that you like my style, I just think it's cool that you say I have a style, I never really considered it! Also, if you want an excellent DOTD fic, check out As The World Dies by Gothgoddessrhia, that was the story that inspired me to write my own. And she's written over a hundred chapters, so there's heaps! Anyway, thanks again for all your nice comments, and I hope you continue to read the story :)

Author's Note: This chapter came on very quickly, I was quite surprised. I think that the opportunity to write something other than them being in the store really got all the creativity happening! Unwittingly I managed to give the characters heaps of options as to where they should go, and now I realise that I can take it anywhere, which is good! Okay, enough of that, let me know what you think!

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"Okay, let's get this show on the road," Seth said.

Leah shut her eyes for a second, attempting to prepare. When she re-opened them, Luke stood before her, his hand outstretched. He was offering her the gun. "I can't take that," she refused.

"You need to - I have to get the car started, so I can't do two things at once," Luke rationalised. "Chances are you won't have to shoot anything, it'll happen really quickly."

"Then why do I need it?" Leah questioned.

"Just in case," Luke said. "Have you ever had any practice with a gun?"

She served him a look. "Only in the arcade, does that count?"

"It's more than I've had," he answered. "Please, take it. I'll feel better about you coming with me if you can protect yourself." He presented the gun again.

Reluctantly Leah wrapped her fingers around the handle. It was lighter than she imagined. "How many bullets are in it?"

"I don't have a clue," Luke admitted. "I've never seen a real gun before. Maybe five?"

"Maybe. How reassuring," she commented dryly. She sighed. "It'll have to do for now. When we get to Williamstown I think I'll be teaching myself everything there is to know about guns. I don't want to have to rely on the maybes."

Luke nodded. "Fair enough."

Seth entered their conversation. "We need to get going. I'm going to make some noise out the back to keep the ones in the loading bay occupied, and the ones in the Snack Shack are still banging on the doors, so they've got something to do. When this happens Roger will open the auto doors and you need to bolt, because he'll be closing them straight after. Get to the car, start it up, head to Kip's and..." he trailed off. "I guess we'll see you in Williamstown." He put his hands in his pockets.

Leah hugged him, and she felt his hands on her back. "It'll be okay," she assured him, despite the churning in her stomach telling her otherwise.

Seth pulled away and looked at her. "Yeah, I hope so." He half-smiled. "Let's get started." He walked towards the stock room and disappeared through the door. Leah swallowed, trying not to think that it might be the last time she saw him.

Roger took his place by the automatic doors, holding the bulky key that switched them on. He looked nervous, but then again they were all scared. Leah gripped the gun tightly, and Luke removed his car keys from his pocket.

They stood still. Luke nodded at Roger, and he turned the key in the electronic lock. Leah and Luke stood in front of the doors, underneath the motion detector. They watched the light turn green, and the doors slid open.

The two of them ran at full speed from the store, across the empty parking lot. Leah looked around for any of the things; there were about five scattered close to the cars blocking the road that she'd had to get through before, but none of them were close enough to be concerned about. "Why did you park so far away?" Leah panted.

"We were busy, no other spaces," Luke forced out, distracted by the terror of what they were doing.

After what seemed like years, they finally reached Luke's car. He unlocked the door and climbed in, then opened the door for Leah. She scrambled in and shut the door hurriedly, pressing down the lock firmly. Luke followed suit.

"Step one completed," he announced, breathing heavily. "God, I need to exercise."

"You're not the only one," Leah gasped for air, holding the stitch in her side. "It's pathetic, really." She buckled her seatbelt, still clasping the gun in her other hand. "We'd better hurry, after all that I don't want to just sit here and wait for them to come to us."

"Damn straight," Luke replied, turning the key in the ignition. The car started up rather noisily, and the sound of the engine increased as he tapped the accelerator.

"Shit, you weren't kidding about that noise," Leah said.

One side of Luke's mouth turned up in a relieved grin. "That's my girl," he patted the dashboard affectionately. Then he looked ahead, becoming more solemn. "And here they come."

The sight of it rocked Leah to the core. A swarm of bloody and mangled people emerged from the loading bay alley, and when they spotted the source of the noise, they headed straight for the Ford.

Luke pressed his foot down and turned the car towards the parking lot exit. The things still followed.

"Looks like it's working," Leah watched over her shoulder as the car sped away from the crowd. She studied them carefully; some of them were running fast, and some weren't moving any faster than a shuffle. _I'll find a way to beat them, _she thought. _There has to be a way._

Luke turned onto the main street, and they were speeding in the other direction, away from the deserted cars, away from the store, away from the swarm. She sighed with relief, but she knew that the danger was over only for the moment. Things a lot more horrifying lay ahead of her, and as she gripped the gun, a wave of steely determination washed over her. She would be prepared. Unlike her mom, who was taken away before she even knew what was wrong, she would not be caught by surprise. She, and the others, would survive. They had to.


	12. Conflict

miss-scarlett1: Thank you, Nat!

CrichtonFan: That's cool, sometimes I don't like Leah either hehe! Nah, just kidding, she's fine, but I can understand why you'd like Luke and Seth, they're pretty decent guys. Seth is actually based on my cousin in real life, who is the nicest guy you'll ever meet. I don't know who I've really based Luke on, that's a mystery. Yeah, my personal life got a bit out of control there, but I'm glad that I'm finding more time to sit down and write, it's really flowing now that I've got these guys out of the electronic store! It's a lot easier. Thanks for all your great comments, it really makes my day when I read what you have to say. Don't be afraid to tell me when you don't like something either, constructive criticism would be great as well :)

Author's Note: I had the freakiest dream about zombies last night! Everyone was basically still living in their houses, and only venturing out for food, and zombies couldn't enter the houses. We were saving an old couple and their grandchildren and taking them to our house - when we got out of the car, the couple and one of their grandchildren came in, but one of the kids, a boy, stayed outside. We told him to come in, and he said, "But there's no zombies," and as soon as he said that a zombie ran out of nowhere and... well, you know, ate him. It was scary! There's more to my dream but I won't bore you with the details. Anyway, another day, another chapter! Enjoy, and review!

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Seth walked from the loading bay into the stock room, after getting the things riled up. He'd shouted at them, making sure they heard him, and they went nuts. Banging on the metal door, howling, wailing. It was the most awful sound he'd ever heard, but he listened anyway. He watched on the surveillance monitor as Leah and Luke ran from the store. Roger shut the auto doors immediately. No problems so far.

Roger joined him in the stock room and glanced at the TV, unnerved by the noise of the things in the dock. They both waited for about a minute, and distantly heard the gunning of a not so healthy engine. The large cluster of things hurried out of the loading bay and down the alley, following the noise.

"Let's go," said Seth, and they ran to Leah's car waiting in the loading bay. All the shopping had been loaded in while they were working out the final details of the plan. Seth climbed into the driver's seat, and Roger pressed the button for the automatic door. It slowly began to rise. Roger ran to the car and got in. They both buckled their seat belts.

"So far so good," Seth commented, leaning forward to get a better look underneath the auto door. It was clear. "Thank God for that." He put the car in drive and once the door was high enough, he floored it out of the dock and up the ramp. Slowing down, he turned right and entered the alley. At the very end the swarm of things chased after Luke's car, which was already leaving the parking lot and tearing down the main street. Seth overtook the horde and followed Luke's beat up car down the road.

"Thank fuck we're outta that store," Roger remarked.

"I know, another hour with you guys and I think cabin fever would have set in," responded Seth, concentrating on the road ahead. Luke's Ford was a fair way in front, and after avoiding an overturned truck, disappeared round the bend.

Seth's phone rang, and he pulled it from his pocket. He answered it, rested it in his lap, and put it on speaker. He didn't like driving with one hand, especially with all the obstacles in the road. "Hey, we made it!"

"I'm so relieved that it worked," Leah's voice rang out. "Luke thinks we'll be at Kip's Station in about twenty minutes, with any luck. We have to go along the highway, I think that's going to be a nightmare. Do you have enough gas to make it until Williamstown? I don't remember the last time I filled the tank up."

Seth checked the gauge. A quarter full. "We'll be okay, as long as we don't have to take any detours."

"Good," she answered. "I'd better go for now, just checking to see if you got out."

"Don't forget to check in at noon, all right?"

"Yeah, we will. Good luck, we'll see you soon. Bye."

"Bye." Seth closed the phone and slipped it back into his jeans pocket.

"We only have a quarter of a tank of gas?" Roger asked with apprehension.

Seth briefly glanced at him and nodded, before returning his attention to the road. A mini-van came screaming towards them, barely swerving and missing them by an inch. "Whoa!" Seth uttered, yanking the wheel to the left to get round the truck, then returned to the right side of the road. "We'll be lucky if we make it out of Blackwood, let alone getting to Williamstown."

"Do you mean we'll run out of gas, or we'll be hit by another car and burst into flames? Because both of those don't work for me!" Roger declared.

"We won't run out of gas. Like I said before, we'll be okay if we head straight there. We just need to stick to the plan."

"Yeah, well shit never turns out like you want it to!" Roger said loudly as Seth dodged an ambulance. "We'll never make it, we're gonna die."

"Just shut up for a sec, would you?" Seth hollered. "I'm trying to focus on not getting us killed here, it doesn't help me when you're acting like an idiot!"

"Hey, it's kinda hard when you're the one driving!" Roger replied harshly.

Seth stamped his foot on the brakes when a woman suddenly appeared in the road. She stood in front of the car, looking at them for a moment with wild eyes. Seth looked at her closely; she was covered in blood, some dry and some fresh. But she didn't have the crazy inhuman look the others had. He rolled down his window and poked his head out. "Are you okay?"

The woman stared at him. "My - my boyfriend..." she trailed off.

"What are you doing, man?" Roger shoved him.

Seth ignored him. "Did he attack you?" he asked. The woman nodded. "Are you hurt?"

She shook her head. Seth looked at Roger. "We should help her."

"Fuck her, just leave the bitch," Roger answered sharply. "We need to be thinking about ourselves."

"I can't leave her to die here, knowing that I could have done something." Seth was battling with his conscience. _Just take her, she needs help, _part of him was saying, the caring part. The logical part was telling him that in the long run she might slow them down, and she could be a strain on the food supply they had.

"Oh my god!"

Seth heard the woman's cry, and he saw her point down the road behind him. He checked his rearview mirror and went pale. The swarm was coming down the road towards them, with only a few stragglers. Most of them were running at full speed.

"Holy shit," he uttered, disbelieving what he was seeing. There was no choice now. "Get in!" he yelled to the woman, and she dashed to the back door on Roger's side, pulling on the handle. It was locked.

"Rog, open it," Seth told him. Roger hesitated. "Open the fucking door!" Seth shouted.

The woman began to beat on the window, scared out of her wits. "Help me!" she pleaded. "Please, let me in!"

Seth grabbed him by the scruff of the neck. "If you don't open that door now," he began in a level tone, building to a loud crescendo, "I swear that I will fucking kill you!" He released him, and Roger hurriedly reached and unlocked the door. The woman scrambled in, climbing on top of the shopping bags. She closed the door and locked it with a trembling hand.

The throng of monsters was close. Seth quickly wound his window up, not wanting to have one of the things reach in and pull him out. He pressed the accelerator down and they hightailed it down the road. Out of the corner of his eye he spied Roger looking over his shoulder at the bloody group slowly becoming smaller as they gained speed. _Roger, you pathetic asshole, _Seth thought angrily. _How could he even think of leaving her there? _

But then he stopped. He'd been thinking of the same thing too, even if it was only for a second. It didn't change the fact that he'd considered going on without her. "Are you all right?" he asked her, looking at her through the rearview mirror.

She was staring out the back window, and jumped when he spoke. She looked at the reflection of his eyes in the mirror, but didn't speak. She was still shaking, and apart from the blood on her jeans and shirt, she was as white as a ghost. The only thing she did do was shift some of the shopping bags so she could sit properly.

"It'll be okay," Seth assured her. "We're going some place safe."

The woman nodded vacantly.

He wasn't sure how to get her to talk. "What's your name?" he enquired. He waited for the awkward silence, but was surprised when she answered his question.

"Kendall."

Seth smiled a little, glad he got a response. "I'm Seth, and this douchebag is Roger. You'll be safe with us."

Kendall looked at him, then her gaze flickered to Roger. Seth could see the doubt in her eyes. She didn't know if he was telling the truth.

And deep down, he didn't know either.


	13. The Highway

Ana: Thanks for your reviews on Chapters 11 and 12! Yeah, I figured that Roger was a necessary character, you have plenty of assholes in real life, so it's logical that at least one will be in your survival group! As for the characters staying alive, I'm not sure if they're all going to make it. It depends on the mood I'm in when it comes to writing that crucial chapter lol. And also I'm glad you like the majority of the bands I do, I'd like to think that I have reasonable taste in music, so I guess you've confirmed that :) I hope you like this chapter!

Author's Note: I wrote this chapter in the last few days; the first half of it took about three days, the last half took about twenty minutes. It's always the way! I guess it's just hard to get started. Let me know what you think of this chapter, I really like getting reviews, and generally when I receive them it motivates me to add chapters faster, hint hint! Hope you like what you read, it's mainly talk for the most part, so I apologise if you're not into that, but if you like that kind of thing, enjoy!

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"Jesus," Leah whispered, horrified at her surroundings. They had just turned onto the highway, heading towards Kip's Station, when she saw the devastation. Cars, buses, and trucks littered the road, accompanied by remains of corpses. The car slowly weaved its way through the obstacles. "I think I'm going to be sick," Leah uttered when they passed a bloody legless toddler crawling pathetically along the bitumen, howling for flesh. She pressed a hand against her mouth and resisted the urge to empty her stomach.

Luke saw the toddler as well and blanched. "This isn't right. This is not how it's supposed to go." He gripped the steering wheel firmly and swallowed.

Leah's hand dropped to her lap, and she looked at Luke with confusion. "What are you talking about?"

He pressed his lips together, as if he'd said too much. "Never mind."

"No, don't do that. Tell me what you mean," Leah said indignantly.

"Now's probably not the best time," Luke answered, checking his mirrors to make sure they weren't being followed. He picked up speed as the road became clearer, but not by much. Only a few other cars were driving as well, most of them were abandoned.

Leah sat back reluctantly and observed the gun in her hand. It was small and black, that was about all she knew. She didn't even know how to reload bullets, although she thought something called a clip was involved. She wasn't sure how to remove a clip, or put a new one in. The weapon that was supposed to make her feel safer did anything but. Once they reached Williamstown, she would learn how to use it.

She put the gun away in the glove compartment. She didn't want to hold it anymore. Instead, she reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. _Who am I calling first? _she wondered. Flipping the phone open, she scrolled through all the names. There were so many people to call, she didn't know where to begin. Then one name appeared on screen. Dad. Before she lost her nerve, she pressed the call button.

As it rang, Leah gazed anxiously out the window. Smoke still rose in the distance, but she wasn't sure where it was coming from. She didn't hear any people screaming or things howling, and she savored it for the moment. It would be a rarity in the time ahead.

"Honey?" her dad answered.

She closed her eyes with relief. _He's alive. _"Hi Dad," she said timidly.

"Are you okay, sweetheart?" he asked.

Leah bit her lip. "Not really. It's... well, by now you'd know what's happening, right?"

Her dad sighed. "I do. I hope you're somewhere safe."

"We're heading to a gas station, and then going out to Williamstown," Leah told him. A small part of her wanted him to be proud of their plan. She wanted to hear that they were doing the right thing.

He was silent for a while before saying, "I suppose I don't need to tell you to be careful."

"I'm more aware of being careful than anything," Leah assured him. "Where are you?"

"I'm still in Broadview for the moment." It was a town about an hour west of Blackwood. "But the group I have here are considering moving to a more remote location."

"You have a group?" she asked.

"Yeah, there's a few survivors here. I was driving from the mall picking up some things when a couple of guys flagged me down. We came back to the house, which is as good as Fort Knox to me, and we've been holed up here all morning trying to figure something out. But I'm glad you're okay, Lee," he said. "So you said you're going to a gas station, is that you and your mom?"

She gripped the phone tightly as her hand began shaking. "No, Dad," she managed to choke. "She - " Leah broke off, and tears welled up in her bright green eyes. "She didn't make it," she forced out. "She became one of them."

Silence on the other end.

"Dad?" she whispered. "Are you there?"

"I'm here," he replied. His voice had changed; it was tinged with sadness. "How did it happen?"

"Bill killed her," she told him through gritted teeth. "It was Bill. He was one of them first."

A pause. "I'm sorry, honey."

Leah didn't want to talk about it any longer. "Listen, I gotta go," she said abruptly. "I'll call you later." She hurriedly shut the phone and put it in her pocket.

Luke was staring a little too hard at the road. Leah knew he was concerned. "I'm fine," she said firmly, wiping her cheeks.

"I didn't - "

"I know what you were thinking," she cut him off. "I can handle it, don't think for a second that I can't."

"I never said you couldn't," he said calmly." And I wasn't going to ask if you were all right, I know you're not. You need time to get over this, it's not easy."

Leah was about to retort angrily that he had no idea what she was going through when she remembered that she wasn't the only one who had lost someone through this. In fact, neither she nor the others had even asked Luke what had happened to his family. "I'm sorry," she mumbled. "I'm being an immature little bitch about this, aren't I?"

"Yeah." A grin flashed momentarily across his face. "But I don't mind."

She smiled as well, but it faded as she asked, "Have you heard anything from your family?"

A muscle in Luke's jaw jumped. He didn't answer for a while. "I don't have much of a family to start with, so that's probably a good thing now. It's just me and my older brother right now."

"Where's he?" Leah deigned to ask.

"In Paris, on his honeymoon," he smiled wryly. "I'm not sure if it's hit there yet. I need to talk to him today."

Leah nodded. "Once we get to the gun club you can use my phone."

"Thanks," Luke replied appreciatively. He scouted the road ahead. "If it stays this clear, we'll probably be there in a few minutes."

"Good." Leah sat back, gazing out of the window again. She desperately tried not to think about her mom, and instead focused on the wisps of smoke rising from the distant fire. Again she wondered where the fire was.

She didn't have to wonder for long. As they rounded the bend, they were hit by a great burst of heat and smoke. Luke hit the brakes; he didn't want to risk driving in such heavy smoke. About twenty yards away, Leah managed to make out the source of the smoke.

Kip's Station was on fire.

"Fuck."


	14. Obstacles

Ana: I was thinking pretty much the exact same thing you were - I really want to be able to have Leah just sit down and call everyone to find out who's alive and who's dead, and also who's undead :P I'll eventually do that, I think it would be cool for character development. I'm glad that you're liking it so much, and I really appreciate all your comments as well! Keep them coming :)

Author's Note: Yes, I'm incredibly lazy. This chapter took forever to write, plus the last week or so has been crazy busy - I worked a week straight, then had Big Day Out (an Australian rock festival that tours the country, I saw some great bands by the way, like Franz Ferdinand and The White Stripes hehe!), and then it's been back to work! Insane stuff. But I did most of this chapter tonight, I have a habit of writing most of it in one hit, I'm not sure what it is. Anyway, I hope you like it, read and review!

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They'd been driving in silence for a while now. Every so often Seth would check his rearview mirror to see how Kendall was doing. She was always staring out the window, and her expression never changed. No emotion registered on her face, and her eyes were vacant as they drove past several ugly scenes that Seth would rather forget.

He glanced at his watch. 11.37 am. About twenty minutes to go until they reached Williamstown. He was relieved to note that the further they got away from Blackwood, the less trouble they ran to. There were a couple of close calls of course; the front bumper had been damaged when a thing darted out of nowhere and threw itself against the car. Seth hoped Leah wouldn't be pissed, but he doubted she cared a lot about her car after what happened with her mother.

_Shit. _He wished he hadn't thought of Leah's mom. It caused all the fears and concerns for his family to come flooding back, and for a moment he stopped concentrating on the road. He thought of his dad, the dedicated doctor. His mom, the loving stay-at-home kind who cared more about her kids than herself. Craig, the eldest brother, doing his third year of med school, following in their dad's footsteps. John, the middle brother, in college on a football scholarship. And their little sister Rachel, almost seventeen, an incredibly sweet girl with a talent for writing.

All in all, Seth had the ideal family. The comfort and security he had known all his life with them had been taken away so suddenly it shook him to the core. He didn't have a clue if they were still alive. It terrified him.

"Where are we going?" he heard the hesitant voice from the back seat.

"Williamstown," Seth answered, grateful for the momentary distraction. "We're going to the gun club there. We'll get weapons, maybe stay there for a while, and try to work out the next move."

Kendall looked directly at him through the rearview mirror. "Do you know what that might be?"

"Honestly, I don't have a clue beyond the gun club thing," he admitted. "We're meeting up with a couple of our other friends there, Leah and Luke. They're getting us gas, just in case. Luke's the one who's come up with the plans so far, he will hopefully have more ideas."

"If not, we're fucked," Roger suddenly joined the conversation after sitting quietly for a while.

Seth tried not to roll his eyes. _You always put a dampener on things, don't you? _he thought with annoyance. "We'll be all right," he said levelly.

Kendall continued looking at him, and he felt like she was studying him under a microscope. She didn't say anything. He focused on the road. Once again, silence filled the car. Only the sound of the engine was heard.

"Let's see what they're saying on the airwaves," Seth suggested, and turned on the car radio. Leah had it tuned into an alternative rock station, which was now broadcasting what sounded like tips for survival.

"Stay inside your homes, lock your windows and doors, make sure that everything is secure. Do not attempt to leave your homes until more information is at hand."

Seth waited for additional advice, and when the same thing played again he realized it was a recording. "Very useful," he muttered, and fiddled with the dial to try another station.

"Dude, the radio isn't going to tell us shit about what's going on," Roger muttered.

"Yeah, well neither are you, so shut up," Seth replied swiftly. He found another station and listened. It sounded live.

"No government officials have commented on what this disease may be," a radio newscaster's shaky voice filled the car. "All we know is that it spreads through bites. If someone with this disease bites you, in a matter of hours you will be taken by it." A distant thump in the background caused the newscaster to start crying. "If someone you know is bitten, quarantine them immediately. Leave them behind. These things - they aren't people any more. Don't try to help them." More thumps, then glass breaking followed by hungry growls. "Oh God, they're here!"

Seth stopped breathing as he listened to the newscaster's heartwrenching screams. The sounds of skin tearing and ravenous chewing emitted from the radio, and Seth hurriedly turned it off. He grasped the steering wheel, staring straight ahead with wide eyes. "Jesus," was all he could say. He swallowed, and began breathing again.

Roger had propped his elbow on the door armrest, his hand supporting his forehead. Seth wasn't sure if Rog even cared about any one but himself. He knew that Roger had a pretty fucked up childhood, and when they used to smoke weed together before Seth quit he found out some serious stuff about how he'd grown up. Not that it was a get out of jail free card, or an excuse to be an asshole, but Seth knew that his upbringing probably didn't help a lot.

His thoughts turned to Kendall. He was curious about what happened with her boyfriend, but he knew better than to ask. He figured he'd have to wait until she was ready to talk about it, whenever that may be.

His phone rang. It was Leah. "What's up, it's not twelve yet," he said.

"We have bigger problems than that," she told him, and Seth heard the fear in her voice.

"Are you guys okay?" he asked with concern.

"We're fine. Kip's Station on the other hand..."

"The gas station? What's wrong with it?" Seth was confused.

"It's fucking exploded."

"What?"

"Yeah, there's fire and smoke and shit everywhere. Kip's Station is now just a giant smoke signal on the highway," Leah said, becoming frustrated. "What do we do now?"

Seth was a little shocked; what the hell had happened that caused the gas station to blow up completely? "There's gotta be another gas station around somewhere. Maybe check a map or something?"

"Another gas station? In this hick town?" Leah was both skeptical and anxious. "The only one I know of is Kip's, so we either need to drive around for ages looking for another station, or come straight to Williamstown. I don't think we have a lot of fuel to be wasting here."

"Check your street directory," Seth suggested. "There'll be one, there has to be."

"We will," Leah replied, disheartened.

"You'll be okay," he assured her. "What's your plan in the meantime?"

"Well we can't stay here, we'll probably die of smoke inhalation or something. We'll just have to start looking for another station. We'll stay on the highway, I guess." Seth heard Luke confirm that in the background. "Yeah, we'll stick with the highway, there must be another station somewhere."

"Definitely," Seth agreed. "Call me back soon, let me know how you go, okay? I don't have a lot of battery left in my cell."

"Yeah, that's fine. I'll let you know if we find another one. Talk to you soon." Leah hung up.

Seth closed his phone. "Shit," he cursed.

"What's going on?" Kendall inquired tentatively.

"Kip's Station, the only gas station in Blackwood that we know of, has kind of... well, exploded," Seth explained, still surprised at the sudden turn of events.

Kendall stared at him. He noticed that she did that a lot, as if she were trying to communicate with him in her mind rather than with words.

"Yeah, I know," said Seth dejectedly. "Fucking weird, right?"

"Oh, that's just fantastic," Roger commented sarcastically. "Next thing we know, our engine will shit itself and we'll have to walk to Williamstown, and defend ourselves against those fucking monsters with our cans of baked beans. Fucking excellent, that's just what I wanted to do today!"

"Are you done?" Seth asked tiredly at the end of Roger's rant.

Roger served him a glare.

Seth ignored it, and kept driving. He hoped nothing else would happen to screw up the plan. He wasn't sure if the next obstacle they encountered was one they could deal with. He didn't want to find out.


	15. Learning Something New

CrichtonFan: Hey, that's all right! You can't help it if your Internet is playing up, it happens :) As long as you are getting it fixed, then that's cool. That would be pretty annoying having only ten minutes to do stuff! Hope you get it fixed soon, I know I couldn't put up with that for long, I love my Internet too much to have so little of it! I'm glad you like the stuff so far, if you get a chance, I'd like to hear what you think of this chapter, I'm not too sure about this one.

Author's Note: Well, I came up with this chapter rather quickly! I hope that's it good, I'm still not sure. It involves stuff about cars, and I have no clue about cars, so I had to ask my dad for advice for the things that happen in this chapter hehe. He should know, he worked for a Toyota dealership for like twenty years. Anyway, I hope it's good, and I really look forward to reading your reviews on it.

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Leah put her phone back into her pyjama pants pocket, and exchanged a look of anxiety with Luke. "Do we have a street directory?" she asked him.

"Uh, yeah, might have one." Luke twisted around in his seat to search the mounds of crap all over his back seat.

Leah sat back, tapping her fingers against her leg as the feeling of uneasiness grew. They'd been sitting there on the highway for a good ten minutes, with the engine turned off to conserve fuel and battery energy. They were sitting ducks, but there was nothing else they could do for the moment, until they knew where another station was.

She tried to peer through the thick roiling smoke that enveloped the car and shrouded everything outside in impenetrable grey. She was beginning to have difficulty breathing; the smoke was slowly seeping in. "We need to get out of here."

"Should we turn back, or keep going this way?" Luke wondered aloud.

Leah opened her mouth to reply when a loud bang rocked the car, and she saw one of the things at Luke's window, scratching against the glass. "Shit!" she shouted, panicked. Luke jumped and leaned away from the window.

"Drive!" Leah told him frantically.

He turned the key in the ignition. The engine sputtered, then died. "Fuck!" he hit the steering wheel. He turned the key again and pumped the accelerator.

The thing at Luke's window was smearing blood all over the glass with its hands and mouth. Leah looked at it. It was a man, not even thirty years old. Someone had taken a chunk out of his throat, leaving a bloody gaping wound that made her feel ill.

The car still wouldn't start. "Shit, we'll have to push start it," Luke said.

"Are you insane? One of us has to go out there? That's suicide!" Leah insisted.

"Do you have a better idea? I need the gun." He held out his hand.

She hastily opened the glove compartment and gave him the gun.

"Okay," Luke looked the gun over. "I have no idea how many bullets are left, but I'm assuming there'll be enough. I'm gonna shoot this thing, then get out and start pushing the car. You get in the driver's seat, put your foot on the clutch, and when I tell you, drop the clutch and put your foot on the gas. Got it?"

Leah nodded uncertainly, fearful for both herself and Luke. This was bad. An awful image of Luke being dragged away by those monsters came to mind, and she forced herself to concentrate. Her job was easy; he was taking all the risks.

Luke glanced nervously at the thing clawing at the window. "Oh, when I get out, turn the key in the ignition first, all right? And put the car in second gear."

"Okay," Leah replied hesitantly.

"Do you remember everything else you need to do?" he asked.

She nodded. "Yeah."

Luke unbuckled his seat belt, then pulled the door lock open. Shoving the door wide, he knocked the thing backwards. He quickly got out of the car and shot it in the head. It promptly fell to the ground, half its head now scattered on the road. "Hurry, we don't have a lot of time!" Luke said.

She scrambled across and got in the driver's seat, shutting the door and locking it. The key was still the ignition, and she turned it. She couldn't stop trembling. Worry filled her. She hadn't told Luke that she didn't know how to drive a manual car. Her Camry was a nice easy automatic; she'd refused to drive a manual because she'd wanted to just concentrate on the road, rather than think about all that clutch and changing gears stuff. _Fuck, I should have learnt it to be safe._

She looked at the gear stick. _Where the hell is second? _The stick was currently up and leaning a little to the left. She knew that to slow down you needed to go back down through the gears, so she assumed that Luke had put it back into first. She pulled the stick down, and it slid into second. _There we go, that wasn't so bad._

"Now!" she heard his muffled call. She took her foot off the clutch and jammed it on the accelerator. The engine sprang to life, and her racing heart began to slow down. "Thank God."

"Shit!" Luke cried, and ran around the car. "There's more coming," he said as he attempted to open the door. It was still locked.

"Damn it!" Leah reached over and unlocked it for him, and he practically leaped into the passenger's seat, pushing the lock down again.

"Go fast," he said to her, shoving his seatbelt into the buckle. The car slowly moved forward. Leah was reluctant to change gears; she had a horrible feeling that the car would stall.

"This isn't really that fast," Luke commented in a panicky voice. He checked behind them. About five more things had emerged from the smoke and were gaining on them rather quickly.

"Luke," Leah began nervously, "I don't know if this is the best time to tell you, but I can't drive manually."

Luke looked at her with wide eyes. "You've got to be kidding me," he uttered with disbelief.

She shook her head, grimacing. "Sorry."

His mouth was almost gaping open. Then he seemed to regain his composure and said, "That's okay. No, that's fine, we'll work around it. Just when I tell you, take your right foot off the gas and at the same time put your left foot on the clutch, all right?"

"What about shifting?"

"I'll do that."

Leah gained speed. The first time Luke directed her to change pedals, it worked. The car went faster. They changed into fourth gear successfully, and the things fell behind. The smoke was also thinning as they continued away from Kip's Station, and eventually she could see the rest of the highway clearly.

"Whew, close one," Leah managed to say after a while. Now that she was in fourth gear, she wouldn't have to do any of the awkward shifting and clutch stuff unless they needed to slow down.

"You're telling me," Luke said. "I can't believe you don't know how do drive stick."

"I never felt the need to learn it, plus an auto is so much easier," Leah pointed out.

"Easy has nothing to do with. What if you needed to take someone to the hospital, and the only car available was a manual?" Luke asked her. "You'd be fucked, wouldn't you?"

Leah didn't say anything. He was right. "Yeah," she finally admitted. "But what are the odds I'd need to drive anyone to the hospital after all the shit that's happened today?"

Luke considered this. "True."

"I still don't feel comfortable driving this car, do you think we could pull over and swap?"

"When it's clear."

They traveled along the highway for a while. Luke had found a street directory and began looking for a map of Blackwood. There had to be another station somewhere. If not, Leah doubted they'd have enough fuel to turn around and make it all the way to Williamstown. They didn't have long to look; she was starting to get hungry, and all the food had been piled into her car, the one that Seth was driving.

She couldn't shake the feeling that they were running out of time.


	16. Irony

Ana: Yes, pockets in PJs are very important! I've only ever driven an auto, and just from looking at a manual car, I know it would take me a long time to adjust to it! Automatic is lazy driving, and I love it that way hehe. You're right - I have a feeling that it will probably be a very long story, I just hope that I don't drag it out for too long! I'll need to find a proper way to end it sooner or later. I'm glad you like that I'm detailed, details are really important to me when I write. I love them:P Thanks heaps for all your encouraging comments.

Author's Note: I finished this chapter just then, at one in the morning, with my brain wanting to shut down for some zzz's. But I hope this is good. I think it's a little shorter than the last chapters have been, I'm not sure, but I hope it's not a problem. Once again, this chapter is written in a different character perspective, and I would really like to know if you find this character's point of view to be an interesting one. Enjoy, and please review!

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The manic streets of suburbia had finally disappeared behind them. They were now winding their way through a hilly countryside, close to the tiny forest village of Williamstown. Kendall gazed out of the window at the blur of green flying past, but she didn't really take in in. Instead of noticing how peaceful it was outside, she was replaying the traumatic events of that morning in her head over and over again.

She'd awoken to a loud pounding on her door, and when she'd pressed her eye to the peephole to see who it was, she was shocked to find Jason standing there, breathing heavily.

"Let me in!" he'd yelled, and she quickly opened the door for him. He'd stumbled in, clutching his arm, dark blood dripping through his fingers.

"My god, what happened?" she had asked, shutting the door.

"Some maniac just fucking bit me!" Jason answered, trembling and weak from the loss of blood. "It's crazy out there, something totally fucked up is going on."

Kendall had hurried to the bathroom at this point, getting some bandages from the medicine cabinet. "What do you mean?" she wanted to know, and pried Jason's hand away from the wound. She winced at the sight of his injury; teeth marks had been left on his skin, and a chunk had been torn from his arm.

"I don't even know!" he'd replied. "People are running around, screaming their lungs out, and attacking each other, and trying to rip each other apart!"

"What?" She couldn't believe it. Wrapping the bandage around his bicep, blood had already begun seeping through the gauze. "Shit, this is going to need medical attention. Maybe stitches or something. We need to get you to a hospital right now."

"Didn't you hear me? It's like the fucking apocalypse out there!" he had shouted. "We can't leave!"

"But if we don't get you to a hospital then you could die from all the blood loss!" she'd insisted.

"If we go out there, we _will _die," Jason told her with certainty. "We can't go anywhere, Kendall."

"Hey," someone said, and Kendall was brought back to the present to find Seth was the one who'd spoken to her. "We're almost there, okay?" he said. Kendall looked at him, not saying a word. He frowned a little with concern, then turned his attention to the road.

She knew that he didn't really understand her; not a lot of people did. He was trying to be nice though, and she appreciated it, but it didn't help. Her eyes welled up as she thought about Jason. He was all she could think about, and had been the center of her thoughts for the last half hour that she'd been with her new traveling companions.

The only other thing that entered her mind was the guy who didn't want to let her in the car. Roger. He was trouble, she could see it. Seth had been frantic when Roger hadn't unlocked the door immediately, and it was admirable that he'd helped a complete stranger.

She was grateful for Seth's intervention, and would be glad to have him as a protector of sorts, but she wasn't comfortable about being with this Roger person. He would always be the guy who wanted to leave her for dead. That was as good a reason as any to have a grudge against him.

Finally she took note of the countryside. So far there were no sign of those things, which was encouraging. Maybe Williamstown would indeed be their safe haven for a while. She hoped so; she needed some time to sit down and digest what had happened this morning. It hadn't hit her fully yet. She kept thinking that Jason was going to call her any minute and tell her that he was fine, and that he would be coming to see her.

In a way, half-expecting him to be alive and okay made the realization even more painful.

The hills around them slowly flattened into grassy plains, and off in the distance she made out a couple of figures stumbling around. They were too far off to be a problem, but the sight of them made Kendall's stomach churn. _What is going on? _she asked herself for the millionth time that day. Yesterday had been perfectly normal, aside from that whole flu thing, and today all hell had broken loose. Whatever was happening, it was unnatural. That was all she knew for certain.

A street sign indicated that Williamstown was now only about five miles away. They were close.

"Almost there," Seth commented, a hint of relief in his voice.

"Yippee," Roger said sarcastically.

"What's wrong with you?" Seth asked.

"Nothing. Just that this place is probably swarming with those fuckin' things."

"Nice to see that you're so optimistic," Seth said dryly. "I think we'll be okay here. There's only been a couple so far, and let's hope it stays that way."

Kendall sat silently, watching the guys banter back and forth. It was kind of reassuring. They were affected by this freakish occurrence like she was, there was no doubt about it, but they hadn't completely lost themselves as far as she could tell. She felt inside that she had changed. Her experience that morning had done something to her, and she suspected that she'd never be quite the same again.

It was ironic that everything had happened today, of all days. It was her and Jason's four year anniversary.


	17. Truth

Ana: Yeah, sorry about the last chapter being short, I just really wanted to post something! This chapter's longer though, I know that much! So, you believe that Kendall is the most mysterious, do you? I never considered that! She is, though. The others hardly know anything about her. I'd say once they get to Williamstown, the others may find out more about her. I really like the way you think - you say things I would never have considered, such as will Leah like Kendall, and will Luke and Leah ever get back to the others? It's really cool, keep giving me ideas :)

Leon S. Kennedy: Well. Now you'd be my real life cousin John, wouldn't you:P For everyone who read this guy's review, know that this is the person that Seth is based on lol. Thanks very much for your comment, and yes, Seth is largely based on my obviously attractive cousin, hehe!

Author's Note: Have no fear, for this chapter is longer than the last one! For the most part it's mainly talking and arguing, but also learning harsh truths about their new world. I really hope you're liking the story so far, don't be afraid to tell me what you think of it!

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They had found a reasonably safe place along the highway to stop. Luke was now safely back in the driver's seat, and extremely relieved. He still couldn't believe that Leah didn't know how to drive a manual. Of all the bad luck they'd had, that was one of the worst. Luckily they'd been able to work together and get away from the things in pursuit of the car. He didn't like to think about what could have happened if the car stalled. But he had a fair idea of what their fate would have been.

"Anything?" he asked Leah.

She was scanning the map of Blackwood in the street directory. "Hold on, I'm still trying to work out what the symbol for gas station is."

Luke bit back a smile. "It'll be a pump," he answered, trying to keep the laughter out of his voice.

"Oh. Right." She ran her finger down the page. "Well, that used to be Kip's Station, and now we're heading south... the closest one is about half an hour away, near Finbar." It was an extremely tiny town; only about twenty people lived there. "It looks like our best option."

"Finbar it is, then," he said. "Maybe we should call Seth and let him know what's going on?"

"Yeah," Leah agreed. She got her phone and pressed Seth's number on her speed dial. "He doesn't have a lot of battery left so I'll make it quick," she told Luke. He nodded.

"Hey, we found another gas station in Finbar, so we're heading up there now," Leah informed Seth when he answered the phone. "It's a half hour drive, but if everything goes okay we should be in Williamstown in a couple of hours." She paused as Seth talked. "Really? Is she all right?" Another pause. "Wow, okay. I guess we'll meet her soon. Anyway, I'll talk to you in another hour, okay? Bye."

"Who's 'she'?" Luke questioned.

Leah slipped the phone into her pocket. "They picked up a girl after we left the store. She survived her boyfriend attacking her after he became one of those things."

"Shit, that'd be tough. What's her name?"

"Kendall. He doesn't know her last name though. Seth says she's pretty traumatised, and she hardly says anything." Leah paused. "At least I'll have a girl to talk to," she said with a smile.

"Yay," Luke replied wryly, and he shot her a grin. He then noticed a man standing on the side of the highway, a hand outstretched to flag them down. "How about we be brave and save a civilian?" he asked Leah.

"Go for it," she agreed.

Luke slowed the car, and the man quickly approached Luke's window. He rolled it down.

"Please help me," the middle-aged man begged. "I need to get to my wife and kids."

"Well you can probably - " Luke stopped. He saw the man was favoring his left leg. "Are you hurt at all?"

The man looked down at his leg. "One of those psychos took a bite out of me. I'm so worried - "

"I'm sorry, but we can't help you," Luke cut him off abruptly. He stamped his foot on the accelerator and continued down the highway. Leah looked back at the man, who was waving his arms at them.

"What are you doing?" Leah demanded.

Luke rolled up his window. "He'd been bitten. He would have turned."

"But you just left him there!"

"Do you know how stupid that sounds?" Luke said forcefully. "What did you want me to do, bring him along for the ride? He could have become one of them in the backseat of our car. Or he could have made it to his family in time to change and kill them all. What would you have preferred?"

Leah fell silent. Luke noticed her lower lip trembling, and he regretted his harsh words. He sighed heavily, feeling the pressure building on his chest. "Look, I know that you want to help people. I do too, but we can't help those who are already going to die, right?"

Leah nodded slightly.

"It sucks, and it's bullshit, and it's not fair, but that's the way it is now," he said gently. "Anyone who's bitten, we either have to kill them or leave them behind."

"Would you be able to do that?" Leah looked him straight in the face, her green eyes radiating anger. "If Seth had been bitten, would you have the balls to kill him? Or leave him to die, either by turning into a monster or being ripped apart by every other thing out there?" Luke didn't reply. "What if I'd been bitten? Could you shoot me? Would you blow my brains out?" she taunted him.

Luke clenched his jaw; her questions and his hesitation to answer them made him wonder if he truly had the capacity to kill someone who was bitten. "I don't know if I could," he admitted in a voice barely above a whisper. "I'm just saying that we both need to be able to do it if it was necessary."

Leah's smirk faded. "I get it. Believe me, I get what you mean. But it still doesn't make it any less fucked up, does it?"

"There isn't anything that will make the situation less fucked up, especially considering that we're dealing with - " Luke didn't finish the sentence. He didn't know if Leah was ready to hear the truth yet.

"We're dealing with what?" Leah urged him to continue.

Luke avoided an overturned car. "You'll think I'm crazy when I tell you," he warned.

"After all the unbelievable shit that's happened today? I think I'll be all right," she assured him.

"It's your call. Okay, what would you say if I told you that these things are... zombies?"

Silence.

"Leah?" Luke said when she didn't speak. She looked out the window for a while. He left her alone to digest what he'd told her, and after a few minutes she turned away from the window.

"Zombies," she repeated the word. "Zombies."

"Yeah, now that's fucked up, right?" He wasn't sure if she believed him yet.

"Well," she began, "I have to say it does make sense. But it's not exactly the logical explanation I was hoping for."

"There's nothing logical about today, that's for sure," Luke said.

"So, you truly believe that what's happening has been caused by zombies?"

"Yeah, I do," Luke answered. "There's nothing else I can think of, plus many many hours playing my PS2 tells me I'm right."

They continued down the highway, not talking for a while. Luke knew that Leah was caught between believing what was right in front of her, and searching for something more logical to explain what was going on. _She'll believe me in the end, _he thought. _She has to._


	18. Williamstown

superaielman: Thanks heaps for your comment, I'm glad that you like the story so far, and I hope that you keep reading!

Ana: Wow, long review! But I liked it, very cool feedback :) Thank you for defining the characters for me, I didn't actually have them really pinned down until you said that hehe. Don't worry, I like reading your reviews, have no fear of that! I understand what you mean though about if Leah were to find that something happened to Seth and the others, and we don't know what, and the readers don't know either because I don't write it from Seth's POV, right? I'm glad you're giving me ideas, right now I'm settling for stuff that I make up on the spot! Hope you like this chapter.

Author's Note: This chapter is slightly longer again, so there might be a bit more of a wait until the next update. I'm getting into the habit of writing every day, and since I have a day off work tomorrow I'm going to try and sit down, and write the next chapter. We'll see how it goes. Anyway, I like this one because I think things are starting to get cool. Enjoy, and review!

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Nothing moved. Main Street, which was the only real street in Williamstown, was eerily quiet in comparison to the chaos of Blackwood and beyond. Everyone in the car was silent as they slowly cruised Main Street, collectively holding their breath, waiting for something to jump out.

Seth's hands were tense on the wheel, and his eyes darted about in search of any things wandering around. "This is weird," he muttered when nothing happened after a while. "How could there be all the crazy shit going on in Blackwood, and there's nothing out here?"

"Fucked up," Roger said to himself.

"Maybe it hasn't spread to here, since no one comes here," Kendall suggested from the back seat.

"Maybe," Seth repeated, considering the possibilities. "It's like a population of twenty people, isn't it? You could be right and it hasn't reached here yet. I think we're finally getting some good luck." He quickly smiled at Kendall, whose face remained expressionless. Seth didn't know what he could do to get her out of the funk she was in. _I guess she needs some time to grieve about her boyfriend, _he thought. _Eventually she'll be okay, just don't push it._

"That'd be a first," Roger snorted.

"I thought we were pretty lucky to make it this far," Seth pointed out, looking at Roger. "But I consider it a fucking miracle that we found a town that's safe."

"Not exactly," Roger countered. He was staring ahead.

Seth turned and saw what Roger was looking at. A few people had gathered at the end of Main Street. "Fuck, are they...?" He saw that the people - there were three of them - were brandishing guns, and unless the things had mastered the art of firing a weapon, he was fairly sure that they were regular people. He stopped the car, and as he got out, the three men came closer, aiming their firearms at his head.

"Whoa, wait!" Seth raised his hands. "It's okay, we're just here for help."

One of them, a dark haired man in his mid thirties, came right up to him. "Have you been bitten?" He fixed Seth with a stern look.

"No," Seth answered quickly. "None of us have."

The man glanced at Roger and Kendall, who were still sitting in the car, afraid to move. "You sure?"

"Absolutely," Seth nodded. "Really, we just came here to find a safe place, and some weapons."

The man looked Seth up and down, as if discerning whether or not he was telling the truth, and after a moment he lowered his gun. The others did the same. "Where'd you all come from?"

"Blackwood. It's completely fucked there, insane shit is going on and we needed to get the hell away from it," Seth told him. "We came here because of the gun club; we were hoping that we could protect ourselves, and maybe stay for a while."

The man looked back at his group. "You can probably stay here for a while," he decided.

"Thank you, thanks a lot," said Seth, letting the relief wash over him. They'd found a place of refuge.

The man gave a firm nod, and a slight smile appeared on his face. "Are your friends ever getting out of that car or what?"

"Come on, guys. It's okay!" Seth gestured for them to get out of the car. The glee he felt was overpowering. They didn't have to worry about it anymore. No more running.

Kendall and Roger hesitantly emerged from the car. Kendall had her arms wrapped around herself, almost like a protective cocoon. Roger was glancing around with disdain, as if to say, 'this is it?'.

The man acknowledged them with a quick look, and slung his gun over his shoulder. "Welcome to Williamstown."

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Seth held a cup of coffee in his hands, and he sipped it carefully. It was piping hot, and he blew the steam away from the surface. Neither the strangers nor his friends were saying anything, and he took this time to mull over the events of the previous night.

When Luke had removed an infected Pete from the store last night and locked the doors, he was concerned about Luke's mental state of mind. But now he was thanking his lucky stars that Luke took care of Pete, otherwise he felt sure he'd be running around out there with the rest of those things.

After Luke had secured the doors, more things like Pete had shown up. The three guys had turned off the lights, kept completely silent, and eventually ended up staying in the store overnight. None of them even considered leaving with the things just outside.

Once they'd stopped moving, the things ceased beating on the glass, and Seth had managed to catch a glimpse of them slowly stumbling around in the dark. Only Roger managed to get to sleep; he and Luke couldn't close their eyes for more than a second. The moaning kept them very awake. They were scared. Seth wasn't ashamed to admit that he was terrified out of his mind.

The adrenalin from being constantly vigilant all night and all this morning kept Seth going, but as soon as he'd sat down with the coffee, his eyelids began to droop, and the fatigue he'd been working through hit him full force. His muscles ached from being tensed all the time, and his brain screamed at him for sleep. Drinking more of the coffee, he slowly began to feel more awake and alert.

After Roger and Kendall got out of the car, one of the local men had taken the key from Seth and parked it somewhere safe. "Be careful," Seth had said. "It's not mine, it's a friend's." The temporary valet had smiled briefly at that. Seth knew that the guy didn't think a car was all that important anymore.

The strangers had taken up residence in the town hall, and had barricaded every window and blocked every door with heavy objects. Only the main entrance was left clear; the door had strong bolts that dug deep into the ground. The man that Seth had first talked to - who later introduced himself as Tom - had invited him to try and make it budge. The door was as solid as a rock.

Along with the first three men they had met, there were two women, an elderly man, and a young boy who looked about fourteen waiting in the hall. There hadn't been proper introductions yet, Tom was the only name Seth knew.

Now he and the others were sitting down at a table, glad to be out of the car and away from danger. For the moment. "So how come there aren't any things running loose here?" Seth asked.

"We're a small town, with an even smaller population," Tom said. "We only had one person who was infected, but he was quickly dealt with."

Seth noticed one of the women in the group bow her head, a hand over her mouth. The infected man had been special to her. Maybe a father, a brother, or a boyfriend. "And there hasn't been any trouble since?"

Tom shook his head. "No one would think to come here for safety - except for you three," he smiled wryly. "We're an hour's drive away from Blackwood, and that's the closest town. It would take the things ages to reach here."

"But they will eventually get here, won't they?" Roger questioned.

A sigh escaped Tom's lips. "I don't think we'll be safe forever," he admitted reluctantly. "But we have guns, we have some food for a while, and we have cots to sleep in. That's about the best we can manage for now."

Seth took another sip of his coffee. It had cooled a little now. "This is better than we could have hoped for," Seth said. "We thought we'd just lock ourselves in the gun club, and after that we didn't know what the next move was. We probably wouldn't have made it very long. But with you guys here, we might be okay."

"Don't worry, we have expert shooters here, should it come to that," Tom assured him. He clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "Time for introductions then, hey?"

"Well, I'm Seth," he decided to start them off.

"I'm Kendall," she said quietly.

"Roger," he plainly stated.

"I'm Steve," said one of Tom's shooters, a solidly built guy in his late thirties.

"I'm Anthony," said the other shooter, the guy who parked the car. He was a tall guy, between mid to late twenties.

The elderly man smiled. "I'm David."

The woman who had been crying looked up. "I'm Naomi," she said, a tremor in her voice. She was younger than the others, in her early twenties. She lowered her head again to wipe her eyes, her black hair falling in front of her face.

The other woman consoled her. "I'm Selene," she said. She was young as well, but looked a little older than Naomi did.

The young boy, lanky and bespectacled, stood nervously. "I'm Bryce," he announced.

There was a moment of silence. In Seth's opinion it wasn't an uncomfortable silence, really. More contemplative than anything. He didn't know what the others were thinking, but in his head he was memorizing the new names and faces around him. They would be his comrades and his friends in this new and fucked up world. For how long, he wasn't sure. He was just glad to have a safe place to stay and people to talk to. _Hell, we might just get through this thing alive. _


	19. Observations

Sanguinary Anima: Thanks for your comment, I hope you enjoy the rest of it!

CrichtonFan: Grrr, Internet! At least you got it fixed, you must be jumping for joy about that! I like hearing who people's favorite characters are, and it's cool that Luke is number one at the moment. Go Luke! This chapter will have a bit more info about Kendall, I was originally going to write this chapter from Seth's POV again, but I decided it was time to go with Kendall again and see how she got to where she is. Hopefully you like it!

Author's Note: I think this chapter came on pretty quickly, and it gives more insight as to what happened to Kendall the morning everything went to hell. Which, incidentally, is the same morning. Wow. This is my nineteenth chapter and we're still on the same day, this is going to be a long story! Please read, enjoy, and review.

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The town hall had been organized pretty well in a short length of time. About fifteen cots were evenly spaced out in a clear section of the hall, each with a pillow and a thin blanket. Tom had said the cots were stored in the hall in case the townspeople needed to leave their homes because of unfortunate events, like fires. Tom had also told them that the hall had ducted air-conditioning, as well as an oil heater for the colder months.

It was the last month of summer. Winter was still a long way off, and Kendall wondered if they would all still be here by then. It was an optimistic outlook that she didn't share with Seth, who was talking to Tom with newfound energy and enthusiasm. Kendall was sitting on her assigned bed, her fingers laced together as she watched the others go about their business.

David and Bryce were playing checkers at the large rectangular main table. She thought they might be related; David had a grandfatherly air about him, and Bryce would hardly speak to anybody else. Steve and Anthony sat at the other end of the table, talking quietly about something appearing to be serious. Kendall noticed they still had their guns slung over their shoulders.

The two women, Naomi and Selene, were sitting on one of the cots. Naomi's body was racked with sobs, and Selene had a comforting arm around the crying woman. Kendall suspected that the person who'd been infected that Tom mentioned had been close to her. She didn't know how though, but she wasn't about to go over there and ask. Roger had picked a cot and was currently curled up beneath his blanket. She felt a stab of anger when she looked at him. _You almost let me die, you prick. _

Leaning back to rest on the cot, she closed her eyes for a moment and tried to calm down. An image of Jason almost immediately emerged from the darkness behind her eyelids. His arm was still bandaged, and he was telling her that they couldn't leave the house or they would die. Once again she relived the terrifying events of that morning.

"We can't just sit here and let you bleed to death!" Kendall had said.

"That's how it's going to be," Jason had replied firmly. Then his tone softened. "I'm sorry, baby. I'm a little shook up about this whole thing." He took a seat on the green leather couch, a hand still pressed gently on his bandaged wound.

"How about an ambulance?" she asked.

"Okay, give them a call," Jason agreed.

She lifted the cordless phone from its cradle on the wall and dialed 911. Instead of hearing an operator, an automated message had said, "All our operators are currently busy at this time. The first available operator will be with you as soon as possible. We apologize for the delay."

Kendall had stared at the phone. There was no way that _all _of the emergency service's operators could have been busy. Could there? "They're all busy," she'd told Jason, and hung up the phone, disheartened.

"Shit," he muttered. He glanced at the dressing, which was now all but completely stained with his blood. "I don't think this is going to stop." His face was growing pale.

"Damn it." She was concerned about the amount of blood he was losing. "Are you sure we can't leave the house?" Kendall pressed again.

"Look outside," he told her.

Kendall hesitantly went to the large lounge room window. Carefully she parted the thick curtains wide enough for her to peek through. Jason was right. Cars flew past, some barely missing people, whilst others were running fast to escape their blood stained pursuers. A man collapsed on the foot path outside her house, and she considered going out there to help him when three other people started to tear him to pieces with their teeth.

She gagged at the sight, and let the curtains fall back into place. Her eyes darted around her lounge room as she came to terms with the situation. Walking steadily to the front door, she made sure it was still locked, then checked the back door and all the windows. She decided to get dressed, since she was feeling vulnerable in just her pyjamas.

Quickly she went to her bedroom and threw on a pair of jeans and a shirt, and put on some black trainers. They were good shoes for running, and with the crazy stuff that was happening, she wanted to be able to run fast. To make herself feel a little safer she took a thick aluminium baseball bat from her housemate's bedroom. _Shit, where's Melanie? _she thought suddenly with rising panic. Then she remembered that her friend always went for a jog before work.

Kendall checked the bedside alarm clock. It was after ten. Melanie was always back by eight thirty.

_That's not good. _She grabbed her cell phone and dialed Melanie's number. One thing was certain about Mel; she always had her phone with her. As the phone rang, she heard Mel's ring tone. _What? _It was coming from the bathroom. The door was right in front of her, but something told her not to go in.

"Jason," she called for him. "Can you come here?"

A low growl sounded from the other side of the door, followed by scratching.

"What's up?" Jason asked as he walked over, but then he heard the noises. "Shit, is that - is that Mel?"

Kendall still hadn't hung up the phone, and the ring tone kept playing, but Mel wasn't picking up. The angry noises and scratching continued. Finally she closed her phone and put it in her pocket. "I think so," Kendall replied. "I think she's locked herself in there. Is there any way we can get in?"

"No, you don't want to go in there," Jason told her. "She'll be one of those fucked up people by now."

She stared at the door. "Mel was probably attacked on her jog this morning. Then she came back here, and I guess she locked herself in the bathroom before she..." Kendall trailed off. She didn't understand what was happening. "I don't know why she didn't wake me up, maybe there's something I could have done."

"There's nothing," Jason insisted. "Once they've been bitten, that's the end of it. It's only a matter of time before they become like those freaks out there."

Kendall looked up at him as the full implications of what he was saying sank in. "You mean, you'll - " she choked up for a moment. "You'll be one of them?"

Jason smiled sadly. "It's inevitable."

"Did you want another coffee?" a voice said.

Kendall opened her eyes to find Seth standing by her bed. "Oh, no thanks," she answered. "I'm okay."

"Are you sure?" he asked.

She sat up and rubbed her eyes. "No," she said quietly. "I'm not."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not yet. I'm sorry, I think I just need some more time on my own."

Seth nodded. "I can understand that. I'll leave you to it, I just thought I'd see how you were."

"Thanks. I appreciate that. And I'm really grateful for what you did for me today," she assured him. "If you hadn't helped me, I would probably be dead by now."

"Aw, shucks," he joked, visibly embarrassed to be considered a savior. "No problem." He winked at her, and wandered back over to speak with Tom.

Kendall's vision became unfocused as tears brimmed, and she forced herself not to cry. She hadn't cried yet about what happened this morning, and she didn't want to publicly display her grief. She wasn't like Naomi, who obviously wore her heart on her sleeve. Kendall was supposed to be stronger than that. But after everything she'd been through that morning, and how horrible it was to just think about, she wasn't entirely sure that in this new world she would have the kind of strength needed to survive.


	20. Despair

CrichtonFan: So you like Kendall, hey? Hmm, what is it about that girl:P I'm happy that you get excited when I've updated, I'm glad that you're enjoying the story so much! And thanks for all your comments.

DanteCrash: Thanks for the encouraging words, buddy. Yeah, Roger's a pretty despicable character, but he's one you love to hate! My cousin compared this story to 'Lost' as well with the flashbacks, I never realized it but you're right! I think that getting a little extra info through flashbacks is important, just as long as it doesn't happen all the time hehe!

Ana: Yay, everybody loves Kendall! The friend who I based the character on is flattered that everyone likes her and thinks she's mysterious. She's getting a big head about it lol, just kidding. As for Roger, who knows what will be happening? He might die, he might not – it's the same with all the other characters. Who will survive? Dum dum dum!

Author's Note: Sorry it's taken me ages to get this chapter up and running! My Internet isn't working at home, I think it must be because some of you had the same problem and you're passing it onto me:P So I'm at the local library right now, and I'll probably be here for a while until it gets fixed. Anyway, this chapter couldn't have been written without the help of my cousin John (who Seth is based on) and he just wanted to see his name written somewhere on the Internet. Please review!

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Leah looked down at her bloodied camisole and flannel pants with disdain. She didn't feel at all capable of doing anything brave in her pyjamas. Luke was still in his work uniform, which normally consisted of a blue T-shirt and black pants, but he was wearing jeans instead. She recalled that both Seth and Roger had also been wearing jeans, so none of them were in the proper uniform.

It wasn't just that she felt vulnerable; she was also a bit embarrassed. She didn't have a bra on, and she was a little self-conscious about that. Luke hadn't seemed to notice. _I need new clothes, _she thought. _We'll have to stop at a store if we can. _But she didn't know how to mention to Luke that she wanted to stop and risk their lives for a new shirt and pants, as well as some much needed support.

"We're close," Luke informed her. "It's just down the road. Maybe you should call Seth?"

"Okay," agreed Leah. She took her phone out and keyed in Seth's speed dial number. Luke began to gain speed. They were close to Finbar, and she knew he wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible. She shared his feelings in that regard.

"Hey you," Seth answered his phone.

"Hi. We're really close to Finbar now, so we'll be at the gas station soon."

"Cool," Seth replied. "How is it out there? Are there heaps of things running around?"

Leah didn't answer for a second. It was weird hearing him refer to them as things after Luke had put the zombie notion into her head. After she'd thought about for a while, in the end she had decided that Luke was probably right. "Not a lot of them. We're pretty lucky, we've only had a few bumps along the way."

"It might not be as bad as it was in Blackwood," Seth said. "If there's hardly anything in Finbar, that's good. In Williamstown, there is _nothing_."

"Are you serious?" Leah asked. "No… things, at all?"

"Yep. A few of the townspeople have set up the town hall as their main base, and so far they've only have one thing to deal with. Roger and Kendall and I are going to stay here and wait for you guys."

"I can't believe it's safe there, that's great," Leah said with a smile.

"You better hurry up and get your asses over here and join the party."

"We'll be there soon," she began, "hopefully in a couple of hours once we – "

A van came out of nowhere and knocked the front end of the car. "Shit!" Luke swore, and he yanked the wheel to try and get the car out of its high speed skid.

"Oh God!" Leah cried, dropping the phone and clutching onto her seat with both hands.

"Leah! What's happening?" She heard Seth yell.

Luke couldn't regain control, and the car veered off the highway and slammed directly into a light pole. Everything faded into black.

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Seth had been sitting on his cot, flipping through the photos that Leah had left in her car when she'd called to tell him about Finbar. As the conversation went on, he continued glancing at the photos. He came across one of him and Leah pulling faces, and he grinned.

Then Leah stopped talking mid sentence, and he heard Luke swear in the background. He heard Leah's exclamation and became panicked. "Leah! What's happening?" The sound of tires screeching and a loud metallic crunch emitted from the phone before the line went dead. "Leah?" he whispered, horrified. Nothing. _Shit, that's not good._

He searched the hall frantically, and when his gaze landed on Tom, Seth immediately went over to him. "My friends are in trouble," he said.

"The friends you talked about?" Tom inquired.

Seth nodded. "They said they had almost reached Finbar to get fuel, but I lost contact with them. I'm not sure what's happened, but I think it was a car accident."

Tom said nothing, but Seth could see the cogs whirring in the man's head. "You want to go out there and get them?"

"Yeah," Seth answered, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion. _What's with the hesitation? _"Of course I want to, what other choice is there?"

"If it was a car accident, they might already be dead," Tom put forward.

"But they might not," Seth countered, his anger steadily rising. "These are my friends. I need to try to help them."

Tom looked at him gravely. "I know you do, boy. It's against my better judgement for you to go back out there, but if you want to rescue your buddies, I won't try and stop you."

Seth began to calm down. "Thanks. I'll need my car, and a gun would be helpful."

"I'll organize that," Tom assured him. "Be ready in about fifteen minutes." He went to discuss it with Steve and Anthony.

_This is so fucking bad, _Seth thought. He started pacing back and forth, worried out of his mind about the safety of his friends. _They could be alive, they could be dead, they could be monsters. Shit._

"What's going on?" he heard someone ask, and he turned to see Kendall standing there, a concerned look on her face.

"Something's happened to Luke and Leah," Seth told her, continuing his pacing.

"Are they all right?"

"I don't know," he replied. "I hope so. But I have to go to Finbar and find them."

"By yourself?"

Seth stopped his nervous pacing and focused on Kendall. "I hadn't thought that far ahead," he admitted.

"Can I come?" she asked tentatively, her arms wrapped around herself. He noticed that she did that a lot.

"Uh, I'm not sure," Seth replied, uncertain about her motives. "Why?"

"I don't want to sit here with nothing to do but think about everything that happened this morning," Kendall explained. "I need a distraction, and this is the kind of thing that would keep me occupied for a while."

Seth realized that he didn't understand her at all. One minute she was taciturn and timid, lost in her own thoughts, the next she wanted to accompany him on a trip that would be extremely risky indeed. "Are you absolutely sure? Because once we're out there, we won't be coming back until we find them."

"I'm sure," she said with determination. "I want to be able to help your friends, like you helped me today. To repay the favor."

Seth considered everything she had said. She wanted to lend a hand, and she seemed more alive now than she'd ever been. Maybe she would be useful. "Okay," he finally agreed.


	21. Exodus

Seth.THATSME: Hey, dear cousin! Thanks for all your contributions to the story, you've definitely helped with some ideas, and especially the big one that I never even considered! And stop telling everyone how damned attractive you are lol.

CTU-FieldOps-Director: Thanks heaps for your encouraging comments, I'm happy that you're enjoying it so far. Don't worry, I highly doubt I'll be doing any malls, I think my story will be the kind where the characters move around a lot and won't stay in one place for very long.

CrichtonFan: My Internet is better again, thank god! I felt like my arm had been cut off! You'll find out soon enough what's happened to Luke and Leah, don't you worry hehe.

Ana: Well, I'm glad that the first thing you did was check to see if I updated, very flattering! Thanks for all the reviews you've given me, I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Author's Note: I'll be moving house tomorrow, which will be a bit of an upheaval, but my progress with the story is going well so there shouldn't be too long a wait before the next chapter. I quite like this one, as there's a couple of things in here that you never really expected. The credit goes to my cousin for those ideas, of course! Enjoy, and please review.

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Tom had Anthony bring Seth's car to the front of the town hall. This was done easily and without fuss, there had been no sighting of the things yet. All the food and drink was still packed in the car, and Seth decided that he'd keep a few bags in the car for him and Kendall. The rest would go to the group in the hall.

Seth had discussed a few things with Tom, and they came to the conclusion that it would just be him and Kendall going on the trip. The men didn't want to leave the hall unguarded, just in case anything happened. Roger wasn't interested in coming along after everything they'd gone through already, and Seth wasn't about to insist on him coming. He was still annoyed at Roger for not letting Kendall in the car when they'd found her, and he imagined that Kendall didn't harbor any good feelings for him either.

He started unpacking the trunk, and Steve and Anthony carried the bags into the hall. Once the trunk had been emptied, he took a few bags out of the back seat, and left roughly five bags as supplies for him and Kendall. He only began to feel hungry as he looked at all the food, and it dawned on him that he hadn't eaten for about a day and a half.

He wasn't sure if some of the people in the hall knew what was going on. Obviously Tom knew the details, and Steve and Anthony knew that they were going away, but he wasn't sure about the others. Bryce had taken a seat on the steps of the hall, playing his Game Boy, occasionally pushing his glasses up his nose. The rest of the survivors were still inside. He wondered if Naomi had stopped crying yet. He didn't think so.

Glancing up at the sky, he saw that the sun was no longer hanging high overhead. It had begun its descent into the west, and in a couple of hours would sink completely behind the horizon. It probably wasn't the best idea to begin the journey so close to nighttime, but he didn't want to leave his friends out there in the dark.

Kendall emerged from the hall, descending the stone steps with an absent expression. "When do we leave?" she asked. Bryce looked up at her with interest.

"Five minutes," Seth answered, putting their supplies safely behind the passenger's seat. "I just need a gun, and then we'll be going."

"Do you feel comfortable with having a gun?" Kendall moved closer.

Seth shrugged. "I've never fired one before, and I never thought I'd need to," he said, forcing a casual tone. He leaned on the open car door. "But I'd be stupid to go without one now."

Kendall nodded silently, and looked around at the quaint country buildings on Main Street before going back inside. Seth put his hands in his pockets and thought about what she had asked him. In truth, he was scared of guns. He had been petrified of them ever since he was held at gunpoint three years ago. He had been working alone in the electronic store, only an hour before closing time, when a stocky man dressed in black had entered and shoved a pistol in his face.

"If you make a move, I will blow your fuckin' brains out," the man had threatened. "I want all the money in the register, and then you're gonna take me to your safe. You fuckin' understand me?"

Seth had nodded, and did as the thief instructed, fearing for his life. When he kneeled down to open the safe, the man had pressed the barrel of the gun against the back of his head. "One wrong move, kid," he'd hissed. Seth gave him the money and the thief bolted, leaving him shaking and scared on the floor. The attack turned him into a nervous wreck, and it took him months to get over it.

The answer to Kendall's question was no, he was definitely not comfortable having a gun.

Seth took a bottle of oil from the trunk of the car, and walked round to the front. Popping the hood, he checked the oil level, which definitely needed a top up. Leah had a habit of forgetting to refill the oil, and he didn't want to be in a life or death situation when the engine fried.

Tom joined Seth at the car, holding a handgun. He started explaining how to operate it, and it sounded fairly straight forward. As Seth studied the gun while Tom described different parts of it, uneasiness filled him. He could have died by one of these things. It was crazy that something so lightweight and simple to use could do so much damage.

"Got it?" Tom finished.

"Yeah," said Seth. Tom inserted a clip, pulled back the slide and put the safety on in a quick, fluid motion. He handed the gun to Seth, who tucked it in the back of his jeans.

"I'd say one clip'll do for your trip," Tom added. "And you said before that your friend also has a gun and ammo, so you'll be okay."

"Thanks for this, Tom. I appreciate your help," Seth said with sincerity. "I just hope that they're all right and we can bring them back here."

Tom nodded, looking at the ground. "Are you sure that you want to go out there?"

"I am," Seth confirmed. "Leah and Luke are in trouble, and they need my help. I have to do whatever I can. Sitting by and not doing anything to stop my friends from dying isn't something I can do. After all the shit that's happened today, the one thing I know for sure is that you need others to get through. They're my friends, and we all have to survive together."

"Not a lot of people would attempt what you're trying to do," Tom said. "I think it's admirable."

"I'm just trying to help," Seth answered simply. He wasn't doing this for the heroics; he was doing it because he had to.

Tom walked back to the hall, and said goodbye to Kendall as they passed each other on the steps. "Time to go?" Kendall asked.

"Yep. Hop in."

Kendall got into the passenger's seat as Seth slammed the hood closed. One of the back doors was still open, and he quickly shut it before getting behind the wheel. He started the car and attemped a smile. "And we're off again."

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Tom ascended the steps of the hall and shut the double doors, bolting them securely. As he heard the engine start and the sounds of them driving away, he felt a mixture of relief and guilt at what he'd done. _It was necessary, _he tried to reassure himself. _You needed to protect the people you already had, you couldn't take on more. _

The other boy, Roger, was still here though. No amount of persuasion got him to agree to the trip. It would have made Tom's life a lot easier if the boy had gone. Now he had to figure out a way to dispose of him without arousing suspicion. He didn't want the others to know his plan, out of fear that they would find his actions reprehensible. _It was necessary, _he thought again.

He had given Seth an empty clip. There was not a single bullet.

Tom had to be sure that they wouldn't come back, and no ammunition made him almost certain that he would never see them again. For if Seth had succeeded in finding his friends and brought them back to the hall, it would make a total of five extra mouths to feed. The food supply had been limited, but now that Seth had left them the majority of his food and drink, they could survive a little while longer without venturing out into the infected towns.

He looked around the hall at his friends, the people he'd known for a very long time. Williamstown was a close knit community; everyone knew everyone. He had to look out for his friends, there was no time to worry about strangers' problems. As he glanced around, he became aware that one of their number was missing. He quickly scanned the rest of the hall before checking the bathroom. Nothing. He stalked back into the hall.

"Where's Bryce?"


	22. Normal Is Unusual

Sanguinary Anima: Nope, not good at all:P

CrichtonFan: I know, the twist was so unexpected that I didn't even know about it until after I wrote most of the chapter! My cousin gave me the idea, and it worked pretty well, plus you need a twist in a story somewhere lol. Thanks for sticking with the story and all of your cool reviews!

armless-phelan: Aww, thanks heaps for your supportive comments, they're much appreciated:)

paperbackdrama: Yep, Seth and Kendall are in a fair bit of trouble without them even realizing it! I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far.

Seth.THATSME: Well cousin, since you're probably going to review every chapter I write and get kudos for your ideas, I'll just have to get used to it! Thanks again for all the chats regarding story plot, I couldn't do it without you!

Author's Note: I'm feeling good about where the story's going. With the help of my cousin (of course), the next few story chapters have been roughly mapped out, and I can't wait to start writing them! Hope you enjoy this one, not a lot happens, but don't worry, the next few chapter's should make up for that! Ooh, also, and this is very important - I edited the chapter before this one due to a bit of an inaccuracy regarding guns, so please re-read it and you might pick up what the change was!

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Once again they drove along the winding road through the hilly terrain. The only difference this time was that they were heading away from Williamstown, not towards it. Seth found it hard to swallow that they'd found a safe haven, a place they could stay for a while and not worry about all the things running around, tearing people apart and destroying everything Seth had ever known.

And just one hour later, he and Kendall were leaving it.

_What a day, _he thought to himself, keeping a sharp eye on the road ahead. _Everything's happened so quickly, it's fucking insane. _Stifling a yawn, he turned on the radio, needing some kind of noise to keep himself awake. Kendall wasn't talking, so that hadn't helped much.

Twisting the dial, he hoped there was something different on; the stuff he had heard on the radio earlier that morning still disturbed him. There was no music, which was predictable. Seth highly doubted any radio station was playing anything but warnings. After he tried every station, he asked Kendall to look in the glove compartment for a good CD.

He was outwardly calm, but inside he was worrying about all sorts of things. His family, his old school friends, his work friends, and now he added Luke and Leah to his long list of fears. Were they all alive and okay? Or were they all staggering around with their innards spilling out onto the street? He cracked his neck, feeling the tension subside with one satisfying pop.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Kendall rummage through Leah's untidy glove compartment. "Good Charlotte?" she asked, holding a CD.

"No way," Seth replied. "No Christian rock, okay?"

Kendall continued searching for something suitable to listen to, and Seth almost laughed out loud as he thought about how normal the situation was. Here he was, driving along in the country, a girl sitting beside him choosing some music. It was so normal that in the new crazy world it seemed like a totally fucked up thing to do, as if they should be frightened all the time. This was probably the only time he wasn't scared out of his mind, and he wasn't sure why.

"System Of A Down?" Kendall questioned.

"Too heavy," Seth dismissed it. "God, Leah doesn't have just one type of music, does she?"

"It's a very eclectic collection," Kendall agreed. She brushed a strand of light brown hair out of her eyes and pulled another CD from Leah's temporary trash can. "The Killers?"

"Put it on."

As the music filtered through the car and both of them became quiet, Seth's thoughts turned to his family. He still hadn't tried to get in contact with them. He'd had ample time in the hall to see if they were alive, but something stopped him from taking out his cell and calling them. Part of him didn't want to call because he wasn't sure he wanted to know how many of them were dead. After all the loss he had seen last night and all that day, he decided that realistically his entire family couldn't have made it.

Seth tried to think of something else, and inevitably began to wonder about what had happened to Kendall that morning. No matter what he thought of, it always came back to her. She still hadn't said anything about the events that led her to run out in front of the car; all Seth knew was that it concerned her boyfriend. Another thing he was curious about was her age. She looked young, but he estimated that she was at least two years older than he was. _I know nothing about this girl, _he realized.

He skipped the CD ahead of one of his favorite songs, still stunned by the normality of the situation. There weren't even any things around, and he was enjoying one of the few moments he'd have before there would be everywhere. He knew that eventually there would be no escaping them, and so took the time to appreciate a peaceful countryside he doubted he'd ever see this calm again.

"What are we going to do?" Kendall asked out of the blue.

He looked at her for a second. "What do you mean?"

She bowed her head, glancing at her clasped hands. "If we can't find them, what will we do?"

Seth swallowed, a thousand possibilities running through his head simultaneously. "I'm not sure," he replied softly.

"Do you think they're alive?"

He blinked. She had a knack for the blunt questions, it took him off guard. "I'm not sure," he said again.

"What will you do if they're dead?"

"All right, that's enough!" Seth answered forcefully. "No more questions."

She flinched away from him at his outburst, as if he'd hit her.

Seth stared at the road ahead, fuming at her awful and persistent questions. _What is wrong with her? _he wondered, his hands tightening on the wheel. He knew that he was only mad at her because she'd asked him things that he hadn't wanted to consider as possibilities. He had to believe that Luke and Leah were all right. He wasn't entirely sure what he would do if they weren't.

For a few minutes the only sound in the car was the music. Seth concentrated on the road, and Kendall was looking intently out of her window. After a while Seth began to drum his fingers on the steering wheel to the beat of the songs, and then he heard a sneeze.

"Bless you," Kendall said quietly.

"I didn't sneeze," Seth replied, a confused look on his face.

Kendall looked at him, and twisted around to check the back seat. "What?" she uttered disbelievingly.

Seth stamped on the brakes, and the car screeched to a jarring halt. He unbuckled his seatbelt and turned around to see what had Kendall so worried.

Hidden in the space behind Seth's seat, was the small, pale, bespectacled boy they'd met at the hall.

Bryce waved. "Hi."


	23. Bryce's Story

miss-scarlett1: Hey Nat, I'm sorry that I've been on MSN rarely, if at all. We'll catch up soon once my life settles back into a normal routine.

CrichtonFan: That's cool, the chapter did start off a little slow, but I'm glad you still liked it. I hope this one was worth such a long wait, eventually we'll be getting to the zombie blood and guts stuff, I just need to set it up hehe. Thanks for saying I should consider writing as a career, I appreciate that!

NamelessDragon: Thank you for your positive comments, hope you like this chapter :)

paperbackdrama: Who knows what Bryce's sudden appearance may bring? Dum dum dum! Thanks for reviewing lol.

dean: Yep, I'm hurrying it up for you!

Author's Note: I apologise for taking such an incredibly long time getting this chapter up. Things have recently happened in my life that had to take priority over the story. But anyway, here's the next part, and don't worry, we're getting closer to the action!

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"What the hell are you doing here, Bryce?" Seth asked, completely surprised at this turn of events.

Bryce slid out from behind the seat and sat in the back. "I wanted to come with you guys," he explained.

Seth looked at Kendall with wide eyes, then went back to Bryce. "Are you crazy? This is not the kind of thing a kid should be doing."

"I'm fourteen," Bryce said defensively. He was small for his age, and looked closer to eleven. "And if this is the way things are gonna be, shouldn't I learn how to deal with it?"

Seth sighed, running a hand through his black and blue hair, considering the options. "I think we should take you back."

"No!" Bryce shouted. "Please don't take me back, I want to help."

"How are you going to help us?" Seth questioned. Bryce fell silent. "It would be better if you were back at the town hall with the others, it's much safer there."

"Yeah, it's safe but it's boring," Bryce said frankly.

"And you want this kind of excitement? The life and death situations?"

"I just don't want to be stuck in the hall. I don't make a difference there." Bryce shrugged his shoulders. "Like you said today, you can't sit by and not try to help. I'm like you," he said with a growing smile.

Seth didn't see a lot of similarities between him and the boy, but Bryce seemed really determined to come along. He looked sidelong at Kendall. "What do you think?"

Kendall sat quietly, studying Bryce. Finally she answered, "Well, he's here now, and if we take him back, we'll lose some time. If Luke and Leah are in real trouble, I don't think we can afford to waste a second."

"Okay," said Seth. "But I think we should call Tom and let him know that you're here, do you know any numbers that we can call?"

"There isn't a phone in the town hall," Bryce said a little too quickly. Seth gave him a knowing look, and Bryce dropped his head. "Fine, there is one," he mumbled. "But if you call them, then they'll want you to bring me back, and we should help your friends first, right?"

Seth sighed. What Bryce said made sense, but he didn't like leaving the others in the dark regarding Bryce's whereabouts. "You've made your point," Seth agreed reluctantly. He started the car again and they gathered speed down the winding road.

For a few minutes an awkward silence hung in the air; after Bryce's sudden appearance none of them really knew what to say. Seth was still surprised at the lengths the kid went to to hide in the car and keep himself concealed.

Kendall twisted around in her seat. "So what's your story, Bryce?" she asked at random.

Bryce blinked, repositioning his glasses. "What do you mean?"

"How did you come to be in the town hall with everyone else?"

"Oh." Bryce cleared his throat, appearing nervous under Kendall's intense gaze. "Um, well, I was at home when my dad came home and said that we needed to evacuate to the town hall. And we did."

"Who's your dad?" Seth asked, glancing at Bryce through the rearview mirror.

"Steve," Bryce answered. "He and Tom manage the gun club."

"What about your mother?" Kendall asked. Seth thought of the women in the hall; neither of them were old enough to have had a fourteen year old son.

"She died ages ago," said Bryce, a little tremor in his voice. "So Dad took me to the hall where a couple of the others were, and he and Tom went out to find more people to bring in. It was just me, Selene, Naomi and Nick at that time."

"Who's Nick?" Kendall wondered.

"Naomi's brother. He was the one that got infected," Bryce clarified. "He went to college in Blackwood and commuted on the weekends. I think he was on his way home last night when he was attacked. He managed to get back here, and at first nothing seemed wrong with him, so Naomi says."

"And that quickly changed, right?" Seth assumed.

Bryce nodded, a faraway look in his eyes. "When we were in the hall, he was sweating and shaking. At the time we didn't know what to do, nothing helped. He was throwing up every now and then, we thought it could have been the flu or something. But I've never seen it like that. And then he... died." Bryce gulped and rubbed the back of his neck.

Seth waited for him to continue. He noticed a couple of things wandering around in the distance beside the road. The things didn't notice them drive past, and Seth breathed a sigh of relief. With every minute they were getting closer to Blackwood, where everything changed for him, and he was starting to panic. When Bryce began the story again, he focused on the words, trying not to think about the horrors of Blackwood that were undoubtedly ahead.

"After a few seconds, he woke up. Naomi was shocked but happy that he was okay. But his eyes had changed, and he made an awful noise, something I'd never heard before. He attacked Naomi," Bryce said, almost whispering.

"Did she get bitten?" Seth asked.

"No. She wouldn't still be in the hall if she was going to turn into one of those creatures," Bryce explained. "Selene didn't know what to do, and neither did I at first. Nick didn't stop, he kept trying to bite Naomi. So I did the only thing I could think of. I got a fire extinguisher and tried to knock him out with it. It wasn't working, so I started hitting him harder. And, eventually," Bryce's voice quivered, "his head caved in."

Seth grimaced as a rather vivid image of someone's head being squashed into chunks came into his mind. He found it disgusting that today he now knew what that looked like in real life, and not just in the movies. "I'm sorry that you had to do that," Seth told Bryce sincerely.

Bryce shrugged. "It's no big deal," he replied with false bravado. Seth could see the kid's hands trembling in the rearview mirror.

Once again, they all became quiet. More things began to appear as they got closer to Blackwood. The dread that Seth felt escalated as the sun disappeared from sight. Things ran after the car, howling with outstretched arms, the lust for flesh plain on their faces. Or what remained of their faces, anyway.

"Holy shit," Bryce uttered. "There's so many."

Seth's first instinct - aside from passing out from the fear he felt - was to tell Bryce off for his language, as he often had to do with his younger sister Rachel. But Bryce was right. There seemed to be a lot more of them running around than there had been earlier this morning. The infection was spreading fast.

Despite all that, they passed quickly through Blackwood with little trouble. Seth got onto the highway, and the only light that shone were the light poles along the road. He was thankful that the power was still operating. Everything apart from the dimly lit road was pitch black. Seth drove faster, as if that would somehow help them escape the all-consuming darkness.


	24. Sacrifice

Author's Note: I am so very sorry for taking such a long time to get this chapter up, I'm such a lazy shit. Thanks heaps for all the encouraging reviews, reading those is what gets me to try and write more when I'm not in the writing mood. This chapter is fairly short, so apologies, and it just about wraps up what happened to Kendall on the first morning. Hope you like!

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"I think they're following us," Seth said, checking the rearview mirror.

Kendall chanced a look in the side mirror. Sure enough, she could make out the very distant shadows of people running after them. There were at least twenty. "What are we going to do?" she asked him, concern filling her voice.

"I have no idea," he answered, his eyes continually flicking to the mirror, as if to be certain that what he was seeing was truly there. "I guess we just keep driving."

Kendall stared at the road ahead, trying not to think about all the things chasing the car. She didn't know how they were going to help Leah and Luke with half the fucked up population of Blackwood in pursuit. "This is bad, isn't it?" she whispered to herself.

"Yeah. It's bad," Seth answered with a glance in her direction, his lips curled in a grimace. "But we're close to Finbar, which is where Leah was when we lost contact. With any luck it will be over quickly."

Kendall tried not to think of the double meaning behind Seth's last statement. _With any luck it will be over quickly, _she repeated in her head. _That sounds promising. _Bowing her head, she began studying her hands in a half-hearted attempt to distract herself from the danger behind them. Dried blood was visible under her fingernails, and she clenched her fists to hide them. She wasn't sure if it was Jason's blood or Melanie's. It sickened her just thinking about it. _God, I'm so sorry._

The events of that morning were still fresh in her mind. She wished that she could ignore the memory, and she even managed to for a while, but it would always come back. In the end, she would always go back to what happened, remembering the exact moment when everything she had known had just fallen apart, replaced by a cold new world where it was kill or be killed.

She didn't know how Melanie - or what used to be Melanie - had broken out of the bathroom. All Kendall remembered was the surprise and terror she'd felt when Mel had lunged for Jason and took a bite out of his neck. Jason had screamed with pain as the flesh tore away from his body, and he'd collapsed on the ground.

Kendall hurriedly backed away. The bat she held hung limply by her side, forgotten, as she watched, immobilized by fear. Only when Mel had turned towards her, blood dripping from her hungry mouth, did Kendall snap out of it. As Mel grabbed for her, she swung the bat with all the force she could muster and made contact with Mel's head. Half her skull caved in under the blow, and she fell to the floor. After a moment, Mel started to slowly get up again.

Kendall raised the bat high above her head with trembling hands, and brought it down. She didn't quite know how to describe the sound that was made when the bat smashed apart the remains of Mel's head. It was a sound she wouldn't soon forget. Mel lay motionless on the floor, fragments of brain and skull embedded in the carpet.

Kendall blanched at the sight of it, a hand clamped over her mouth as she realized what she'd just done. "Oh god," she uttered, shaking her head. Hot tears sprung forth, and she dropped the bloodied bat. She took a breath and tried to pull herself together, but when she saw Jason still sprawled on the carpet, getting paler as the blood from his neck wound pooled around him, her whole body became racked with sobs. It was most definitely a fatal wound.

Falling to her knees beside Jason, she clutched his hand, her vision blurred by her tears. She didn't know what to say, or what to do. All she could do was cry for the boyfriend that was slipping away from her. She heard him whisper something that she didn't catch. "Say it again?" she managed to ask.

Jason licked his lips, his breathing labored. "Kill me," he said faintly.

Kendall immediately stopped crying, her sadness replaced by disbelief. "What?"

"You heard," he replied, grunting as he moved a little. "I'll end up like Mel if you don't."

"You won't," Kendall insisted in a panicky voice. "I can - I can put you in the car and take you to the hospital, they could - "

Jason shook his head, silencing Kendall's distressed reasoning. "I'm going to die either way, but if you don't kill me, I'm not going to stay dead. I'm going to get up and hurt you." He looked deeply into her eyes to emphasize how serious he was. "Please. Do it."

Her bottom lip trembled, fresh tears spilling down her cheeks. She nodded reluctantly and, picking up the bat, rose unsteadily to her feet. Jason was already twitching in the throes of death, and she sobbed uncontrollably over his dying body. Then he was still.

Kendall wiped her face, her breathing constricted by the pressure in her chest. It felt like her heart was literally breaking. She lifted the bat up, holding it over her head, and waited.

Jason's eyes snapped open.

She brought the bat down.


	25. Lost and Found

Author's Note: Thanks heaps for all the reviews and stuff, not enough time to reply to everyone individually, I just thought I'd get this chapter up as soon as possible. Enjoy!

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The next thing Kendall knew after she'd killed Jason was that she was running from the house, crying and dry reaching, and somehow she ended up in the middle of the road. That was when she'd almost been hit by Seth's car. And he saved her.

Kendall stared at Seth's profile, light intermittedly cast across his face from the street lamps. Apart from the black and blue hair, he looked like a normal guy. _But he's not normal. Not a lot of people would have helped me today, _she thought.

Seth had rescued her in a time where things were at their darkest for her; he had been kind to her, he had cared about what had happened to her, he worried about her welfare. In the midst of all the terrible things they'd gone through that day, he was still concerned about her.

It was bizarre to have a virtual stranger take care of her, but she was dealing with it.

"I hope the zombies don't catch up to us," Bryce said from the back seat.

Seth glanced his rearview mirror, a bemused look on his face. "The zombies?"

Bryce nodded, and turned around to look back at the road behind them. "Yep. That's what they are."

Kendall exchanged a surprised look with Seth. "How do you figure?" Seth asked.

"Duh," Bryce said with a little smirk. "Don't you ever play video games, or watch those kind of movies?"

Seth shrugged, tightening his grip on the wheel as he avoided a few abandoned cars with bloody windows.

"Well yeah, sure. But that's different, this is real life. That kind of shit doesn't happen."

"Look around. It's happening," Bryce replied simply with the conviction of someone much older.

"Fair enough," Seth said, his brow furrowed in thought.

Kendall considered what Bryce was saying. It did seem like the logical explanation. The bites, the hunger for human flesh, the way they wouldn't die from anything less than a head shot. She'd heard of crazier things, and after everything that happened today, she needed an answer for it all. This would have to do.

"I believe you," she said, glancing at Bryce.

"Are you serious?" Seth asked disbelievingly.

"Yeah, I am," Kendall answered. "It makes sense."

"But there's no way..." Seth trailed off.

"Unless you have a better theory, I'm sticking with this one." She stared at the darkened road ahead, thinking about Jason, thinking about Mel. She wasn't even sure if her parents were alive or dead, or worse. So many questions needed to be answered.

"Okie dokie," Seth said with a sigh. Kendall knew that he believed what Bryce had said, and just needed time to come to terms with it.

They traveled on for a while in silence, every now and then navigating their way around deserted cars and trucks, or corpses, or stray things running around. _They're called zombies now, _Kendall thought. At least they had a name for their foe, and could work out how to deal with them.

"There's more in the group," Bryce commented, squinting out the back window. "I think."

"Fantastic," Seth replied dryly. "How fast are they moving?"

"Not that fast now, but when we slow the car down I'd say they'll catch up to us in about ten minutes," Bryce estimated.

"Fuck," Seth muttered, looking at the rearview mirror. "Do things really have to keep getting worse?"

"Yep," Bryce answered, pointing ahead with a shaky hand.

Kendall and Seth both stared at the road in front of them. More zombies emerged from the darkness and were headed towards the car. Fast.

Seth stomped on the brakes, causing all the passengers to lurch forward. "Oh come on!" Seth groaned, both annoyed and scared. "Shit. What do we do?"

She said nothing. She watched the zombies in front that moved closer with alarming speed. There must have been at least thirty of them. They would be on the car in a minute. Maybe less.

"Just drive through them," Bryce suggested. His kept twisting his head, looking at the zombies coming from the front, then checking the ones behind. "If we go back it won't do any good, there's more of them."

Kendall saw out of the corner of her eye that Seth was watching her. She faced him. "I don't know," she said simply. "We don't have a lot of options."

Seth watched the approaching zombie swarm, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. "Fuck it," he decided. He floored it.

Kendall braced one hand on the door and the other on her seat. _Oh shit, I can't believe we're doing this. _She watched with wide eyes as they crashed into the first lot of zombies. Some glanced off the windshield, and the car heaved as they drove over several bodies. Even with the windows up and all the horrible crunching noises of corpses being flattened, she could still hear the unearthly screeches from the zombies. It shook her to the core.

The car started slowing down as the wheels battled to climb over the zombies underneath, and more and more started banging on the windows. They were all around the car. She wasn't sure if the zombie group behind them had caught up yet, but it seemed like it. They were everywhere.

"Just - fuck - off!" Seth shouted in frustration, attempting to shake the zombies. A few more went down as the car slammed into them, but whenever some were taken care of, more took their place.

A couple of particularly vicious zombies hammered on the back windscreen, causing it to crack. "Come on!" Bryce yelled from the backseat, his voice breaking with fear.

Kendall shut her eyes and tried to block out all the noises; the zombies' wails, the sound of bodies breaking underneath the car, Seth's scared and angry curses, Bryce's whimpering. After a few seconds all the sounds stopped except for the reassuring hum of the engine. She hesitantly opened her eyes and found herself looking out a bloodied windscreen that showed a clear road ahead.

"Yes!" Seth shouted out of the blue, then started laughing. "Holy shit, we made it!"

Bryce was too busy staring at the crack in the windscreen that was the difference between him living and dying to join in with Seth's celebration. Kendall smiled reluctantly. For now, the worst was over.

A few more minutes of silence passed until Seth said, "Hey, I think that's Luke's car." He slowed the car down to check out a car that had crashed into a street light. The front end looked almost completely crushed by the force of the impact, but the rest of it was in decent shape. "Yeah, that's the Ford all right," Seth muttered to himself.

He stopped the car and pulled the gun from his jeans. "Stay here," he said to Kendall and Bryce. Taking a breath, he unlocked his door and stepped out.

She watched with apprehension as he raised the gun and scanned the highway for any zombies wandering around. They had gained a lot of ground since the attack, but there wasn't nearly enough space between her and the zombies for comfort.

Seth looked in the window, then with a puzzled expression, opened the driver side door. Kendall saw him lift something - it looked like a jacket, she wasn't sure - but she saw an unconscious guy leaning against the steering wheel, blood trickling from a nasty gash in his forehead. _Luke, _she surmised.

Seth walked back to the car, motioning for her to roll down her window. She did so, and saw a look of worry on his face. "What is it?" she asked. "Are they all right?"

"Luke's okay, from what I can tell," Seth replied, glancing back at the car.

"And Leah?"

Seth cleared his throat. "Leah isn't there."


	26. Goodbye

Author's Note: Wow, I am EXTREMELY sorry for how long this latest chapter has taken! I have been incredibly lazy, and I apologise for making you wait so long, I swear that I'll strive to get the next chapter up as soon as I can. I really hope it's worth the wait, but the only way I'll know for sure is if you review it. Thanks heaps for all the encouraging reviews I've received, your support has really made a difference, and it's the only reason I'm writing this story. Hope you like it!

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Leah saw nothing but grey swimming in front of her eyes. She blinked a few times and became aware of a warm fluid trickling down the side of her face. Slowly things began to focus, and she lifted her head off the dashboard. A sharp pain went through her head, and she winced. _Where am I? _she wondered, unsure of what had happened.

Sitting up, she remembered that she'd been with Luke in the car, and after that she wasn't sure. The front end of the Ford was smashed, and the windscreen was cracked but miraculously unbroken. As she repositioned herself, a shocking pain coursed through her left shoulder and she cried out. It felt like she'd dislocated it.

"Shit." She winced as she stared at it, and vaguely in the back of her foggy mind it occurred to her that she'd need to put it back into place.

Her head throbbed, and every now and then her vision blurred. She made out the shape of a body next to her. Luke. His head rested against the steering wheel, and from the looks of it he was still alive, but unconscious. She recoiled at the large cut in his forehead; the amount of blood oozing from the wound made her feel sick.

The highway lights had come on, illuminating the road. A few orange streaks of sunlight remained in the sky, but for the most part it was pitch black. If she squinted she could see the shape of a gas station further up the road. They needed to get there, not so much for fuel anymore, but for shelter. The last place they should be was in a wrecked car on a highway with all those zombies running around.

"Luke," she whispered, nudging him a little with her good arm. He didn't stir. "Luke," she said again, louder this time. He still didn't move. "Shit," she muttered, and winced as the pain ran up her arm like electricity. She tried not to cry out. Tears formed in her eyes. It was pain like she'd never experienced before. She took several steadying breaths and waited for the aching in her shoulder to subside.

After a few minutes of thinking, Leah unbuckled her seatbelt and scanned the back seat, looking for something to cover Luke with. She couldn't take him with her, but she didn't want to just leave him out in the open. A sleeve poked out from under a mound of miscellaneous rubbish, and she tugged it free. It was a large black jacket, big enough to cover Luke's upper body. As she draped the jacket over him, she prayed that any zombies wandering past wouldn't figure out what was underneath.

Opening the glove compartment, she pulled out the gun. She wasn't certain, but she thought there would still be bullets in it. At least the arm she'd injured wasn't the one she needed. She glanced out the passenger window looking for any sign of zombies. None. Resting the gun momentarily in her lap, she used her good arm to open the door, then picked it up again. Hesitantly she exited the damaged car, her eyes darting around, gun raised. Still no zombies. In fact, it was eerily quiet.

Leah turned around and looked in the direction her and Luke had been going. The Finbar gas station was maybe half a mile away. In a normal situation Leah would have had difficulty walking that far - her friends had often remarked that it was a miracle she stayed thin in spite of her laziness - but this wasn't normal. She was dizzy from the accident, and her shoulder was agonizing. Every time she moved, pain would race through her shoulder and make her feel nauseated.

She gritted her teeth. _Come on, Leah. Stop whining like a little bitch and get this over with. _She began walking along the bitumen, surprised that the road ahead was devoid of the standard fare: abandoned cars and remains of corpses. It was hard to believe all this has happened today; to Leah it felt like a lifetime.

She swayed midstep, feeling dizzy. _Oh god, how am I going to make it? _she thought with despair. She started walking again, ignoring the horrible sensations in her shoulder. Every now and then she checked behind her, aiming the gun. But there was nothing, just the sound of her own labored breathing. The silence was starting to freak her out.

Panic rising, she walked faster, scared out of her mind at what could be out there in the darkness beyond the highway. She felt so exposed. At least she was almost there, maybe another fifty feet. Suddenly her phone rang, vibrating in her pocket, and she jumped. "Fuck," she muttered to herself, and took it out of her pocket. When she saw who was calling her, she stopped walking and answered it. "Dad, are you okay?"

"Lee," he uttered, gasping for air. "I'm sorry."

"Dad, what are you talking about?" she asked with rising panic.

"The group and I decided to move to a different place, and - " he broke off into a nasty sounding coughing fit. " - a couple of us got attacked on the way."

"Attacked? Dad, I..." Leah trailed off as it dawned on her. "Oh god. Did - did you get bitten?"

There was a pause, which confirmed her worst fears. Tears welled up in her eyes. She didn't know what to say; there was nothing she could say. "No," she whispered, not willing to believe that her father was going to die.

"I'm so sorry for never being there for you, Lee. I regret that more than anything. I wish I could have been a better father." His voice sounded alarmingly weak. He was slipping.

The tears flowed down her cheeks, and everything around her seemed to fade away with only her father's voice remaining. "I'll miss you, Dad," she finally said, feeling like a lost little child.

"Goodbye, sweetie. I love you." The line went dead, and Leah just stood there, eyes unfocused and swimming with tears. His last words echoed through her head over and over, and she wanted the earth to open up and swallow her. _What's the point of living when my parents are dead?_ Absently she slipped the phone back in her pocket, and was about to fall to her knees when she heard several moans and growls coming from behind her. She turned around, gun raised, and her mouth fell open in horror as she saw roughly ten zombies emerge from the darkness about thirty feet away.

Leah ran for the gas station, her dislocated shoulder screaming in fiery agony. Stars danced in front of eyes as she almost succumbed to dizziness, but she kept going, focusing on the station. She was almost there. The zombies were closing in; she could hear them snarling, hungry for her flesh.

She reached the station's automatic glass door. It didn't open. "Help me!" she yelled, frantically beating on the glass, praying that someone was in there. "Please! Open up!" The door remained shut. "Shit!" She turned around and aimed the gun at the approaching zombies, leaning on the glass door to keep from collapsing. Suddenly she fell backwards as the glass door slid open, and she felt someone drag her further inside. The door closed again just as the zombies reached it, and they hit the glass with their fists. There was no way they could smash it; the glass was way too thick.

Leah lay there on the floor for a moment, out of breath and bewildered by what had happened. As she moved to get up, a gun appeared in her face, and she heard someone say, "Don't move."


	27. New Friends

Author's Note: I'm so lazy that it's not even funny! Once again my apologies for taking such an awfully long time to put this chapter up, I only just finished it and I had to post it immediately for you guys! Thanks very much to all the positive reviews I've received, it's really encouraging and I'm glad that so many people are enjoying the story so far. Hopefully I can keep the momentum up and post a new chapter sometime next week. Please review, and I hope you like it!

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Leah stared with wide eyes at the gun that was inches away from her face. She didn't dare breathe let alone move with a gun that close to her. She managed to tear her eyes away from it to focus on the person holding it. The girl looked about the same age as Leah, but was seemingly a lot more confident with a gun.

"Have you been bitten?" the girl asked.

Ignoring the gun was difficult, but Leah eventually found her voice. "No, I haven't."

"Check her," the girl said to someone behind Leah, and a young guy knelt down to search for bites. He turned Leah's neck, and then lifted Leah's injured arm. She cried out in agony and he dropped her arm in surprise. Supporting it with her good arm, she gritted her teeth and waited for the pain to subside.

"What happened to your arm?" the guy asked.

"Car accident," Leah said, trying to blink away the dizzy spots dancing in her vision. It didn't work.

He gave it a once over, then said to the girl, "Her shoulder looks dislocated. I'll take her in the back and fix it."

She nodded and said, "Finish checking her first."

He did as she asked, examining her stomach and legs. "She's clean."

The girl lowered her gun. "Okay, take her out back. Sorry about that," she said directly to Leah. "Can't be too careful."

"I know what you mean," was all Leah said before she succumbed to exhaustion and passed out.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

She opened her eyes and stared up at an unfamiliar ceiling. The floor felt refreshingly cool against her back after all the running she'd been doing. She became aware of a presence in the room, and looked around to see the guy who'd checked her for bites sitting on a chair against a wall.

"Welcome back," he said with a half smile.

"What happened?" she asked, not getting up. She relished being able to lie down; it had felt like years since she'd last relaxed.

"You fainted," he answered simply. "Probably due to stress, physical exertion, your shoulder being dislocated, etcetera."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," Leah looked at her arm awkwardly cradled against her chest. "It hurts like hell. I don't know what I imagined a discolated shoulder would feel like, but I didn't think it would be this awful."

"Don't worry, I can fix that," he assured her.

"You're a little young to be a doctor, aren't you?" She wasn't sure, but she guessed he wasn't much older than herself, maybe a year or two.

"My girlfriend was studying to become a nurse, so she taught me a few things." His expression changed as he spoke, as if he was talking about something painful.

At this point Leah decided to raise herself to a seated position. "Is that your girlfriend out there? The one with the gun?"

"Annabelle? No, definitely not," he said with a smile. "She's my cousin."

She hesitated a moment before asking, "So where is your girlfriend?"

The smile slowly slipped from his face. "I don't know," he admitted. "Vanessa was doing her nursing course at Blackwood University so she regularly goes there. Today wasn't any different. I've called her, but she hasn't answered." He sat in silence for a moment, leaning forward in the chair, examining his palms. "I can only assume the worst."

Leah felt sorry for the guy; it was hard not knowing for sure what had befallen Vanessa. She decided to change the topic. "Are we safe here?"

"For now. The glass is pretty thick so they'll have a tough time breaking through. The back door is secure, and we have control of the front door, should we need to let someone in." He grinned again. "Like you."

"That's what I've been meaning to ask you," she said. "Why did you let me in? Not a lot of people would have."

The guy shrugged. "Annabelle and I saw you, and... I don't know, we just decided to open the door. Plus I probably would've felt guilty for the rest of my life if we hadn't helped you."

She nodded slowly. "I can understand that. I'm Leah, by the way."

"Aaron," he introduced himself. "If only we'd met under more pleasant circumstances," he said in a mock poetic voice.

She smiled, grateful for a momentary distraction from reality. But then she thought about Luke, unconscious in the car, totally vulnerable. "Do you have a car here at all?"

"Annabelle's car is parked out back. She works here," Aaron clarified. "Or at least used to before we all got shot to hell. Why?"

"The car accident I was in, I was with a friend of mine. A van hit us out of nowhere and we crashed into a light pole. Everything is a little hazy after that. He was still knocked out when I came to, so I left to get help." She felt incredibly bad about leaving him behind, but it had been necessary. "So, you're kind of it. Is there a way we can bring him here?"

Aaron exhaled heavily, thinking. "How far away is your car?"

"I think about half a mile down the highway," she estimated. "Please, if there's any way you can help I'd really appreciate it."

He gave a nod of confirmation. "Okay, I'll talk about it with Annabelle. But first," he stood up, moved the chair into the center of the room and gestured for her to sit in it, "we need to fix your shoulder."

"Really?" Leah winced as she got up from the floor and sat in the chair. "Doesn't that hurt?"

"Yeah, it'll hurt like a bitch," Aaron replied rather lightly. "But do you really want to spend the rest of your life having your arm hang by your side at a weird angle? It's not a good look."

"Okay," she reluctantly agreed, but when he stood behind her she instinctively tensed.

"You need to relax, otherwise this will hurt a lot more than it should," he told her, placing a hand on the problem shoulder.

"But I can't. I'm not exactly a fan of pain," she said dryly.

"Is anyone? Well, aside from masochists," Aaron replied. "Try and think of something calming, like a happy memory or something."

"What kind of - "

Aaron popped her shoulder back in mid-sentence and she cried out, tears escaping from beneath tightly closed eyelids.

"Fuck," she whimpered, holding her shoulder.

"I told you, it hurts like a bitch." Aaron walked around the chair to face her. "You all right?"

"Why didn't you warn me?" she asked, still reeling from the pain.

"Because you needed to relax," he said with that cheeky half-smile. Leah noticed he did that a lot. "I thought you might've been onto me when I was trying to distract you, some people realize what I'm doing, but obviously you didn't get it."

"Thanks very much," Leah said a little harshly. She took a few deep breaths and then glanced up at him. "Sorry. Thank you," she told him sincerely.

"No problem. You stay in here for a while until you're okay, and I'll go talk to Annabelle. Just come into the main room when you're ready." He walked out and left Leah alone with her thoughts. Her shoulder felt fine, although quite tender when she moved in. She didn't have full mobility, but she figured that would come in due course.

As the full impact of everything that happened that day sunk in - her mom, her friend Ruby and her dad were all dead, she had lost contact with Seth and the others, the car accident - she began to sob. _How the hell am I going to get through this? _she wondered hopelessly. She had lost so much already.

And it had only been one day.


	28. Refuge

Author's Note: By now you've pretty much come to expect that the Author's Note at the beginning of each chapter will be an apology for taking so long! So we'll just skip over that part and go to the part where I hope you enjoy this new chapter. Just keep in mind - there is a time difference from the events that are happening to Leah and the things happening to Seth, it's just that you haven't been told what that difference is yet. Enjoy!

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"Where the hell could she be?" Seth thought aloud, staring at the empty car seat where Leah should have been. _This is not good. Why can't anything just go right? _"Damn it."

"What do we do now?" Kendall asked.

"I don't know," Seth answered, his expression despondent. "But Luke's here, so we need to wake him up and get moving."

"That might be a good idea," Bryce piped up nervously, looking out the cracked rear window. "The zombies are coming."

Seth whipped around to see the large pack of zombies coming down the highway at an alarming speed. "Fuck," he swore, and rushed over to the mangled Ford. "Come on Luke, wake up," he muttered, lightly slapping him on the cheeks. "Come on." Luke's eyelids fluttered briefly but he didn't come to, much to Seth's chagrin.

"Shit. All right, let's go, buddy." Seth undid Luke's seatbeat and gently but hastily pulled him from the car. "Bryce, open your door!" he yelled, struggling with the dead weight. Unceremoniously hoisting Luke into the back seat, he slammed the door and shoved himself in the driver's seat. Gunning the engine, the car shot forward down the highway, gaining a fair bit of distance from the zombies.

Driving past a small gas station, they soon entered the city limits of Finbar. Much like when they first got to Williamstown, nothing moved. It was unnerving. "Okay," Seth broke the tension-filled silence. "It's night-time, we have a big mob of zombies after us, we're in a strange town, and Luke's unconscious in the back seat. Does anyone have a plan?"

Kendall and Bryce didn't say anything.

"I'm loving the input from you guys so far," Seth commented, his eyes darting around Finbar's main road for a place to hide. When he saw one particular building, he stopped the car. "This'll do."

Bryce stared up at the building. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, why not?" Seth pointed to a hastily scrawled sign on the front door. "It says closed due to family emergency, so no-one would be in there, right?"

"I guess," Bryce agreed hesitantly.

"We don't have a lot of choices," Kendall said. "How do we get in?"

"Leah should have something." Seth leaned over and opened the glove compartment, rummaging through the mess. Along with a few other protection methods like mace and an airhorn, Leah was known to also have a Swiss army knife in her car.

Eventually he felt the cold metal, and pulled the knife from the compartment. He held it up, relieved that Leah was still over-cautious about personal safety. "Does anyone know how to jimmy a door?" He received blank looks from Bryce and Kendall. "All right, I'll do it. Wish me luck," he added with a forced smile.

"Good luck," Kendall whispered, her blue eyes wide with fear. She handed him the gun they'd been keeping alongside her feet.

Seth gave her a look of appreciation before checking their surroundings for zombies. Clutching both the handgun and Swiss army knife, he exited the car. _So far so good, _he thought. He knew that he didn't have a lot of time; the zombies weren't that far behind. Moving quickly to the building's front door, he tucked the gun in the back of his jeans, opened the blade and placed it in the door jamb. He'd never done something like this before, although when he and Roger were in their younger reckless days he'd seen Roger do it several times. Of course, he knew that there was a big difference between watching someone jimmy a door open and doing it yourself.

_This is fucked, _he thought. _What are you going to do, wiggle the knife for a while and hope the door opens? _Despite feeling a complete idiot, he attempted to get the door open by using Roger's technique. A few minutes passed and he felt like he almost had it when Bryce said from the car, "Uh, Seth?"

"Yeah?" he replied without taking his eyes off the door.

"You might wanna hurry up, the zombies are getting a little close!" Bryce informed him in a strained voice.

Seth took a look down the road. He could see them in the distance, and at the rate they were moving, the swarm would be on them in minutes. "For fuck's sake," he muttered in frustration, and returned his concentration to the door. His panic was rising, and his hand was soon slick with sweat. "Shit," he cursed as he almost dropped the knife. Finally he heard the lock release and pushed on the door. It swung open with ease. _Thank god._

"Come on!" Seth yelled as he ran to the car and opened the back door. Pulling the gun free, he handed it to Kendall. "Keep an eye out for any zombies that are close, okay?" Without waiting for a reply, he slid Luke's unconscious form out onto the ground and picked him up under the arms. Bryce ran round to grab Luke's legs, and together they hurried for the door. Kendall followed behind, her eyes darting in all directions, scouting for danger.

As Seth and Bryce were about to enter the building, Kendall moved in front of them. "I'll go first," she said

"Are you sure?" Seth asked, panting with the effort of supporting Luke.

"Yeah." Kendall nodded, attempting to look brave but her trembling hands gave her away. "I'm the one with the gun, I should go in first."

"Let's make this quick guys, there's not a lot of time," Bryce spoke up, his breathing also labored.

Seth watched Kendall go through the doorframe, gun raised, and then she disappeared in the darkness beyond. He and Bryce entered the building, and Bryce shut the door behind him with his foot. "We'll need something to block that with," Bryce mentioned.

"Yep," Seth replied, keeping that in mind. He shuffled backwards through a long dark corridor, then heard the sound of automatic doors opening behind him. "Can you see anything?" he asked Bryce, who was the one moving forward.

"Not yet," Bryce answered.

"Kendall?" Seth called tentatively, his voice sounding unnaturally loud in the silence. No reply. He adjusted his hold on Luke as his hands were cramping from the strain, trying not to drop him. "Kendall!"

Suddenly the fluorescent lights overhead flickered on, and Kendall was visible on the far side of the room. "I found the switchboard," she announced. "The power seems okay. No zombies as far as I can tell."

Seth and Bryce hoisted Luke onto a nearby countertop with grunts of exertion. "We need to block that front door and disable those automatic doors," Seth said. He looked around the room for something heavy that could barricade the door for a while. There were a few vending machines lining the walls, several desks, loads of shelves. The shelves would make a good barrier, but they would have to take off all the objects weighing them down before moving them. The objects were bowling balls, of many different sizes and colours.

They were taking refuge in Finbar's only bowling alley, Bob's Bowling Bonanza.


	29. Conversations

Author's Note: Wow, I really am a shit, aren't I? It's been close to two months since I updated, that's quite bad! I haven't really been inspired lately, I guess. For the last few days I've really sat down and struggled to get this chapter done, I'm so glad I finally got there! I'll see if I can update again in a week, it probably would have been easier if I'd worked out a storyline than just writing randomly. Anyway, hope you like it! I highly doubt it's worth the excruciating wait though.

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Leah tried to make herself comfortable on the hard concrete floor. Annabelle had also found a spot to curl up for the evening, and Aaron was leaning against the counter, keeping a watchful eye on the glass doors, gun in hand. The zombies were still outside. Since there had been no movement in the station for a while, they'd become quiet and content to just wander around. Despite being almost completely obscured by the various displays against the windows, their moans faintly filtered in through the thick glass.

"You can never entirely forget that they're out there, can you?" Aaron asked softly, still concentrating on the doors.

"You read my mind." Leah shifted to face him, her head resting on her hands. "It's terrifying to think that at any moment we could all die. Because of fucking zombies," she finished incredulously.

"So you've figured it out then?" Aaron's lips curved into a small smile. "It's insane, isn't it? It's horror movie shit, things like this don't happen in real life."

"Until now," she said soberly, considering everything that had happened to her that day. Her gaze dropped to the floor. "Will... " she paused to clear the lump forming in her throat, "... will this nightmare ever be over?"

"I don't know," he replied. "I hope so. I can't picture living out the rest of my life in a gas station," he attempted some humor.

Leah smiled, but a tear slowly trailing down her face belied her true feelings. "Everything is so fucked up," she whispered, her voice cracking.

He looked down at her, a concerned frown on his face. "Are you all right?"

"My parents are dead." She wiped her cheek. "They're worse than dead. They're out there with the rest of the zombies."

"I'm sorry," he told her sincerely. "That must be really hard to deal with."

"It hurts so much," she admitted. "I need to find my friends but they could be dead already. I don't know what I'm going to do."

"You're going to survive. You'll call your friends, see where they are, and then get them to pick you up from here. That's what you should do first thing tomorrow."

"Okay," Leah complied in a defeated voice.

"I'll keep watch for a while." Aaron looked at the gun in his hand. "Try and get some sleep."

"I'm not sure I can with them out there." She was ashamed at being such a wimp when both he and Annabelle seemed so calm and strong. "The noises are really disturbing."

He nodded in agreement. "I think that's the reason I'm doing guard duty - I wouldn't be able to sleep either."

Leah felt better knowing that he was scared as well. "Where did you get the gun?"

"It's a gas station," Aaron stated plainly. "You kind of need a gun, in case of an emergency."

"But this is Finbar," Leah countered with some amusement. "There's like four people in the whole town."

He grinned. "Ha ha," he said sarcastically. "Seriously though, it's just for protection."

"How many bullets do you have?"

"Not many," he admitted. "We never figured we'd have to shoot a lot of people. I guess we should've planned for the apocalypse."

"That might have been a good idea." She smiled, her heart lifting at the playful banter.

"Oh well, at least we'll know for next time when zombies take over the world. We just have to learn from our mistakes," he smiled wryly. Then his expression became serious. "We'll make it through, okay?"

She opened her mouth to answer but then her cell rang, startling her. She pulled it from her pocket and glanced at the caller ID. She sat up abruptly. It was Seth. "It's my friend," she told Aaron, staring at the phone, her mouth going dry. Her heart pounded as she flipped it open. "Hello?"

"Jesus, you're alive!" Seth sounded extremely glad to hear her voice. "Are you okay? Where are you?"

"I'm fine, I'm at the Finbar gas station." She glanced at Aaron, who was looking at the ground but paying attention to the conversation. "Where are you? Did you make it to Williamstown? Are Kendall and Roger still all right?"

"Kendall's okay, so's Roger as far as I know, the chicken shit didn't come with us, he's still in Williamstown. We got there, but when I heard the accident I had to do something about it. We're in Finbar as well."

"You're joking!" Leah exclaimed. Things were looking up. But then she remembered. "Did you find Luke? Please tell me you did."

"Yeah, we've got him here, too. He's still a little loopy but he'll make it."

She closed her eyes briefly. _Luke's alive, _she thought, breathing a sigh of relief. "Thank god. So where in Finbar are you?"

"A bowling alley," Seth answered, and she could hear the smile in his voice. "Yeah, I know. But it's a decent place to hide. Lots of nutritious high sugar snacks and soda. I'm in heaven."

"I'll bet you are," she replied with a wry grin. "I'll find a way to get to you guys tomorrow, okay? It'd be safer in daylight."

"Sounds good to me. The zombies are in Finbar now, so it's going to be pretty fucking hard, but we'll figure it out tomorrow."

"You know what they are?"

"Yep. A kid in Williamstown told us - " Seth broke off as a male voice talked in the background - "sorry, a _teenager _explained what they were. It's a long story, but he's here with us. We'll take him home when we head back to Williamstown."

"Is that still the plan? Is Williamstown safe?" Leah stifled a yawn; she was really starting to feel exhausted.

"When we left there had only been one problem, but everything seemed okay. Then again, Finbar was completely deserted earlier and now it's crawling with the fucking things. I'll call you tomorrow so we can start working out the details, all right? For now I think we could both use a bit of shut eye."

"You're not wrong about that," she agreed. "I'm so glad everyone's alive."

"Me too. Get some rest, we'll figure something out the morning."

"Okay. Good night."

"Night."

Leah hung up and slipped the phone back into her pocket. "They're all okay," she informed Aaron, lying back down on the floor.

"I gathered. That's great news."

"Thanks for the jacket, by the way. I appreciate it." Aaron had given Leah his jacket earlier when she'd expressed her discomfort about her blood-stained camisole. The pyjama pants made her feel like a dork, but at least with a jacket on she wasn't as self-conscious.

"No problem. You needed it more than I did." He gestured to the multiple shirt layers he had on.

"True," she smiled. After another yawn, she decided to take Seth's advice and sleep for a while. "When is it my turn to be on guard duty?"

"Don't worry about it. You just sleep."

"Thanks, Aaron." She closed her eyes and rested her head against her arms. "You're a good guy."

He stared through the various displays that blocked the floor-to-ceiling windows, and occasionally caught glimpses of the zombies milling around. His thoughts turned to Vanessa; he wondered where she was. He'd felt bad lying to Leah about the circumstances of Vanessa's disappearance. It was because of him that she was most likely a zombie as well.

Leah had easily slipped into slumber, so she didn't see nor hear Aaron crying softly in the dark.


	30. Insecurities

Author's Note: I can't believe it's taken me so long to write another chapter. I sit down every week and look at this story, and I don't know why, but it's been a struggle. This particular chapter has been in progress for about seven months. Seriously. So it's a little uneven but I thought it'd be better than nothing. I'm working on the next chapter, and I hope to have it up within a week or so. Keep your fingers crossed, and I just might go through with it :) Thank you to all the people who've stuck by this story and have had to put up with my erratic chapter additions. You're truly legendary.

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Seth closed his phone, relief flooding through him. Leah was all right, and for the time being, safe. Now all he needed was a plan. That was going to be the tough part. He glanced around the large bowling alley; Finbar was such a small town that it didn't warrant a bowling alley even half the size of Bob's Bowling Bonanza, but Seth was grateful for all the space. The last thing he wanted was to be confined.

Before calling Leah he, Bryce and Kendall had shifted a few bowling ball shelves to block up the front entrance. There were four altogether, two stacked on top of each other. They were fairly solid shelves, so if the zombies found a way to get through, they'd at least be occupied for a little while. As for the automatic door, that had been an easier task. Seth had grabbed a broom and pushed both detectors upwards, so they couldn't sense any movement. The doors couldn't be opened from either side now. For the most part, they were reasonably protected for the time being, but he knew that they shouldn't stay there for any longer than necessary.

When they'd been stacking the shelves against the front door, a steady trickle of zombies appeared. By the time the shelves were done, most of the swarm they'd tried to leave behind were in the street outside. Kendall had disabled the outside lights so that the zombies couldn't see in, and so far they hadn't realized where their prey was hiding. But it was only a matter of time.

"You know what sucks? Being stuck in a bowling alley and not being able to actually bowl," Luke commented. He'd come to around an hour ago, and was mostly back to normal apart from the occasional dizzy spell.

"Tell me about it," Seth agreed.

"So, what's the plan? How do we get Leah back?"

"To be honest, I really don't have a clue," Seth admitted. "The car's out there right in the middle of all those fuckers, and even if we did find a back way out of here, we'd be on foot. Which scares the shit outta me."

"We could distract them?" Luke suggested.

"Yeah, but how?"

Luke shrugged. "Hadn't got that far. Maybe instead of us going to Leah, she could come to us? We're pretty safe here, right?"

"They'll eventually get in." Seth sighed, frustrated with the situation. "Come on, let's eat something."

Earlier they'd managed to open the snacks and drinks vending machines; chips, chocolate bars, and soda cans were strewn all over one of tables by the food bar. Kendall was sitting by the table with Bryce, a bemused expression on her face as she watched Bryce shovel food into his mouth.

"Dude, no one's gonna take it away from you," Seth commented as he and Luke joined them at the table.

A muffled 'sorry' escaped Bryce's lips, his puffed-up cheeks working hard to chew all the chips. Eventually he spoke properly. "I haven't eaten today."

"Neither have I," Luke realized, reaching for a chocolate bar. "I'd kill for some hot food, like a burger or a steak or something."

"Chocolate and chips is pretty much all this place has to offer," Kendall said, resting her chin in her hand.

"Awesome!" Bryce grinned, swigging a Coke.

Seth shook his head wryly, opening a bag of barbecue chips. "It'll do. The food in the car is a little better, but..." he trailed off. The others knew why; the car was totally out of the question. He started cracking his knuckles, slowly and methodically. _Leah would go off her tree at me if she was here, _he thought and smiled a little. But she wasn't here. She was in the Finbar gas station, waiting for him to rescue her. His smile vanished. He didn't know what to do, and he hated admitting it, but he wasn't sure if he could help her. He rolled his neck around, and after a couple of satisfying pops he decided to think about something else.

"How does your head feel?" Kendall asked Luke.

He touched the gash above his left eye and grimaced. "It could be better. The throbbing is irritating as hell, but I'll live."

"I'll check the medicine cabinet for some painkillers." Kendall pushed her chair back from the table and went into one of the offices.

Luke glanced slyly at Seth. "You know, she's pretty hot."

Seth grinned. It hadn't escaped his attention either. "Yeah, I noticed."

"How did she end up with you guys?"

Seth told him about how he and Roger had almost ran her over to begin with, and the journey to and from Williamstown. It seemed like a lifetime ago now.

"Roger's such a pain in the ass. No wonder you left him in Williamstown," Luke said after Seth finished.

"I think he said something like 'there's no fucking way I'm leaving with you assholes', or something nice like that." Seth shook his head. "He's such a tool."

Kendall came back with a box of supermarket-brand aspirin. "There you go." She slid it across the table and sat back down.

"You're a lifesaver," Luke thanked her and immediately popped two pills in his mouth and washed them down with a Coke.

"So what are we talking about?" Kendall wanted to know.

"How we found you... and Bryce," Seth added quickly. "And how Roger's still in Williamstown."

Kendall stiffened at the mention of Roger. "Once we get Leah, are we going back there?"

"I think that was the plan," he answered reluctantly. "But then again, do things ever go to plan?"

"Good point," Bryce jumped in, his mouth crammed with M &M's.

Seth smiled, and pretended to stifle a yawn with his hand. He didn't want to talk about it anymore. "I think I'm gonna hit the hay."

"I found a few blankets out the back." Kendall pointed to a folded pile on the main counter. "They're a bit old, but I think they're okay."

"Cool. Thanks." He took a blanket and eventually settled down on the softest spot he could find. Closing his eyes, he tried to block out all the worrying thoughts that kept entering his brain. _You won't find a way to save Leah, and she'll die because of you. It'll be all your fault. _He squeezed his eyes shut tighter, as if by doing that he'd silence the taunting voice. It was a long time before he finally drifted into a dreamless sleep.


	31. Isolation

A/N: Well, this has got to be the longest chapter wait in history, am I right? By now you would know that I tend to write in bursts, and these bursts have not been as frequent as I would like! But tonight was different; I sat down to work on the story, and after writing for about an hour, I finally got where I needed to be. Before I knew it, I had a chapter. And once again, my apologies for the delay. I hope this one's worth it. It didn't go where I thought it would, but I think it's an interesting turn of events nonetheless. Please don't hesitate to let me know. Cheers guys :)

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_This has been one fucked up day, _Roger thought as he lay on his cot, hands interlocked behind his head. The main hall lights had been switched off, a lone Exit sign bathing the room in a pale glow. He could make out the shapes of the others, unmoving in their cots apart from the steady breathing of deep slumber. He closed his eyes and tried to block out the muffled sobs filling the hall. Naomi hadn't stopped crying about her damn brother and it was starting to piss him off. Roger didn't understand how none of the others were woken by it. He was tired, uncomfortable, and even though he didn't want to admit it, scared. Her blubbering didn't help things.

He turned over onto his side, one ear effectively blocked by the pillow, and he pulled the thin blanket over his head. He could still hear her, but it wasn't as bad. _Shut up, you stupid bitch. _He was irritated. Williamstown had seemed like a good idea, but now he regretted coming along. He was surrounded by strangers who'd ignored him most of the time, and earlier that evening he'd sat on his cot, flicking through the old text messages in his phone for what seemed like hours. Five messages from Seth. One message from Luke. Seven messages from Tara, a chick he'd been seeing. Where was she now? Did he even really care?

He'd cycled through the messages so many times, he had them memorized. _I should've gone with Seth, _he'd thought in hindsight. He was bored here, and the country bumpkins had kept going on about the missing Bryce kid. Like the damn zombies didn't matter or anything. There had been no sign of them so far, which let them all breathe a little easier. But now, as he tried to fall asleep on a tiny cot in an unfamiliar place, fear throbbed in his gut. It was only a matter of time before they came.

He pulled the phone from his jeans pocket to check the time. 1:27 am. Lights out had been at 10:30; he'd been awake for almost three hours. Quickly he went through the messages again, as if there may be one he'd missed. He'd been waiting for a message from Keith all day now. His brother was the kind of guy who always instantly replied, no matter where he was. Roger was still waiting. He shut his eyes again, forcing the thought from his mind.

A bang against the main door snatched him away from his attempted slumber. He shot up, and stared at the door for so long he thought he might have imagined the noise. Holding his breath, he slowly rose and crept closer to the door.

"Help me!" a voice on the other side screamed. Roger jumped a foot, then looked around to see if the others had woken. No-one stirred. "Let me in, please!" A woman's voice. Elderly, from the sounds of it. Desperate thuds pounded against the heavy wood.

_What the fuck am I supposed to do? _he thought."What's wrong?" he called out, unsure of what else to say.

"You're there! Oh, thank God! Please, I have to get inside!"

Tom's sudden appearance by his side startled him momentarily. "It's some old lady," Roger told him.

Tom approached the door. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine, but please, you have to hurry, there isn't much time!" the elderly woman begged. Then her voice changed. "Oh God, they're coming! _They're coming!_"

Roger glanced at Tom, expecting the man to immediately unbolt the door. But he just stood there. As the faint noise of rabid screeches and feet thumping pavement grew closer, the colour drained from Roger's face.

"We can't let her in," Tom said without Roger even asking. "It's too risky, they're close now."

Roger backed away from the door as the woman's cries of pain filtered through all too clearly. The disgusting sound of flesh being stripped from bone by manic hands and teeth made him dry reach. He got as far away from the damn door as possible.

The others began to wake, looks of confusion and then horrifying realization marring their faces. Tom was the first to grab a gun. "They're here," he said succinctly. Steve and Anthony took up their firearms, while Selene tried to comfort Naomi, who was rocking back and forth on her cot. "Go away, please just go away," Naomi uttered with wide eyes.

"I thought we were safe here," the old man, David, got up from his cot.

"So did I," Tom replied, loading cartridges into his pump-action shotgun. "Looks like things have changed."

"What are we going to do? They'll get in!" Naomi screeched.

"The truck," Steve said, looking to Tom.

Tom nodded. "Seems that way."

"What truck?" Roger asked. "What's the damn plan?"

"There's a truck behind the hall," Anthony answered. "Room for three in the cabin, and the rest in the back."

"We have to go out there? Are you fucking kidding me?" Roger ran a hand through his hair. _There has to be a better way than that._

"If we're quick, we'll make it." Tom rested the gun on his shoulder. "I suggest you get some food together fast, boy. There'll be more coming, and this is our only shot. Get as much food as you can."

Roger normally wasn't the type to take instruction from someone else, but this wasn't an everyday situation. He ran to the small kitchenette in the hall's left wing as fast as he could. He found plastic bags under the sink, and stuffed supplies from the fridge into them quicker than anyone at a supermarket ever did.

Weighed down by the multitude of bags he carried, he staggered back into the hall. "Okay, I think I've got..." his voice trailed off as he looked up. The hall was empty. The others were gone. He dropped the bags and hurried to the back door. He saw the truck pulling away through the window. "No!" he screamed after them, but it was too late. The red tail-lights soon disappeared into the black.

He was alone.


	32. Changes

Author's Note: I am a machine. I watched Dawn of the Dead about two days ago and that's really kickstarted the ideas process for me. I finished this chapter in two days, which must be a record for me. Comment, review, applaud, complain, etc :)

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The early morning sun shone through the wide windows despite the stacks of food and various displays. Leah scrunched her eyelids tighter in protest. _Five more minutes, _she thought. Her body was exhausted from yesterday's marathon of running, and even the cold concrete floor seemed like a soft bed after what she'd been through. Pure adrenalin had kept her going, and it was only when she rested she realized how tired and sore she truly was.

The smell of eggs and bacon wafted into the room, and as her stomach rumbled noisily she realized she still hadn't eaten anything. She eventually got up, stretching her arms and legs to get out the kinks from a night on hard ground. She'd almost forgotten they were out there. Almost. For the most part the zombies were quiet, shuffling aimlessly, and an occasional moan of hunger pierced the glass. She grimaced. How she'd managed to get any sleep with them out there was beyond her.

Aaron poked his head through the doorway behind the service desk. "Breakfast is almost ready."

Leah stifled a yawn. "Smells good."

He motioned her forward. "Well, come on, lazy bones."

She wrapped the jacket around her and followed him into the back room. Annabelle was putting the bacon on separate plates, next to the fried eggs. "That looks great."

"Bacon and eggs is the best way to wake up, even in a zombie apocalypse." Annabelle handed her a plate and cutlery. "See, Aaron? I told you a hot plate would be useful, didn't I?"

"I vaguely recall you mentioning it at least a million times." He rolled his eyes. He mimicked her voice. "'It's a good idea, Aaron, and at least you'll eat something besides pizza all the time'. I get it, you always know better."

"Damn right." She gave him his plate. "Remember that while you eat your gourmet breakfast."

Leah smiled at their antics, sitting down with them at a small table to begin eating. The bacon practically melted in her mouth, and she savored its taste. She shoved the rest in and quickly moved onto the eggs.

"So, you haven't eaten for a while?" Aaron asked, amused.

She looked up from the food. They were both staring at her; Aaron was fighting a grin, and Annabelle raised an eyebrow. "It's been about two days," she replied, covering her mouth as she talked around the food. She swallowed. "Sorry."

"It's okay. We're probably eating better than most people, anyway." Aaron ate a forkful of food, then stood up. "By the way, Annabelle and I hunted around earlier. We've got you clothes and some shoes. What's your shoe size?"

"Eight," Leah answered.

Aaron pulled a pair of black trainers with blue laces and highlights from one of the lockers. "Eight and a half. Close enough." He handed them to her.

"Wow. Thank you." She held them like they were a fragile gift. Her feet were black from the bitumen, and more than a little scraped. Shoes were a godsend.

"The socks aren't so hot, but they're all we could find," Annabelle added as Aaron gave her the socks with an apologetic half-smile. Leah suspected the socks had once been white; they were now an unappealing grey colour. Luckily they didn't smell, even though they looked rather disgusting.

"Oh. Okay. They're better than nothing," Leah reassured them.

Annabelle rummaged through another locker and pulled out a pair of dark blue jeans. "I always keep a spare pair at work. The amount of times I've spilled shit all over myself is ridiculous." She pointed to a stain just above her knee. "This one is coffee from yesterday, when I almost hit one of the fuckers trying to get here." She left the jeans on a nearby countertop. "They should fit I think, and they've gotta be a damn sight better than your pyjamas."

"Tell me about it," Leah agreed, finishing off her breakfast.

"And last but not least, your new shirt." Aaron whipped it out with a flourish. It was a medium-sized black T-shirt with a white Ramones logo printed in a circular design. "I don't know if you're a Ramones fan at all, but now you are."

"Is there anywhere I can put these on?" she asked.

Annabelle pointed to a door. "The bathroom's in there."

"I really appreciate this," Leah told them.

Annabelle nodded. "No problem."

"It's what we do," Aaron said in a mock serious voice.

Leah slipped into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. For the first time in what seemed like years, she stared at her reflection in the mirror. Her dark red hair was matted with sweat, and maybe blood, but she couldn't tell. Dark circles around her green eyes told her she still had a lot of rest to catch up on. There was only a toilet, a hand dryer and a wash basin in the cramped bathroom, but it would do. She stripped off her camisole and pyjamas, dumping them in a corner. Slipping out of her underwear, she washed them in the basin and held them under the dryer for a while before resting them on the edge of the basin.

With soap and water, she scrubbed herself down, getting rid of the dried blood stains on her arms and around her neck. She ducked her head under the stream to wash her hair as best she could, and used the dryer to get rid of the excess water. Within minutes she felt fresh and clean again.

A soft knock at the door. Leah, still naked, ducked behind it. "I'm not finished yet," she called out.

It opened slightly and Annabelle's hand poked through. "I thought you might need one of these." She was holding a black padded bra. "It seems like I keep spares of everything, so you're in luck."

Leah took the bra. "Thanks," she said with gratitude. "Thanks a lot."

The door closed again, and she began to get dressed. The jeans were snug but otherwise a good fit, and the shirt hung well after she tied it in a knot at the back so it sat nicely on her hips. The bra was slightly big for her, but she adjusted the straps and eventually fixed the problem. The socks and shoes went on, and she studied at her reflection again. _Much better, _she thought, running fingers through her damp hair.

She exited the bathroom, old clothes in hand, and placed them in a nearby trash can. Now that she was out of her pyjamas, she didn't feel as vulnerable anymore. The next step was to get back to Seth in one piece. She hoped he'd figured out a plan. Aaron and Annabelle were at the service counter, flicking through TV channels. Most were playing the same information on a continuous loop, except for one.

"Some of our bases have been compromised," an army officer was saying. "But Fort Alexander has not fallen. It's safe here. I repeat, Fort Alexander is safe." The officer looked right down the lens. "If you can find a way to reach us, do it fast. The military forces at the fort can and will protect you."

Leah exchanged glances with the others. "That's upstate, isn't it?"

"Probably about two or three hours from here," Aaron estimated. "Maybe more depending on the zombie traffic."

"It's better than staying here." Annabelle sighed. "We should leave before it gets worse."

"Is it just me, or are there more outside now?" Leah thought the zombie crowd looked bigger than it did last night.

"Way more. And they'll keep coming." Aaron took a road map down from the tourist information display and unfolded it on the counter. "We're here." He stabbed the tiny dot that read 'Finbar'. "The fort is..." his finger traced up a major highway. "... there. If the highway's bad, there's a couple of alternative ways. I think we can do it."

Leah's phone vibrated in her pocket; she'd switched it to silent since the ringtone made the zombies go nuts. She glanced at the caller ID. It was Seth. "Hey."

"Hey. So... how do you feel about Fort Alexander?"


End file.
